LiveLeak, the Internet's Font of Gore and Violence, Has Shut Down (theverge.com) 79
Video site LiveLeak, best known for hosting gruesome footage that mainstream rivals wouldn't touch, has shut down after fifteen years in operation. In its place is "ItemFix," a site that bans users from uploading media containing "excessive violence or gory content." The Verge reports: In a blog post, LiveLeak founder Hayden Hewitt did not give an explicit reason for the site's closure, saying only that: "The world has changed a lot over these last few years, the Internet alongside it, and we as people." In a video posted on his YouTube channel Trigger Warning, Hewitt offered no further details, but said that maintaining LiveLeak had become a struggle, and that he and his team "just didn't have it in us to carry on fighting." "Everything's different now, everything moves on," says Hewitt, before adding in an aside to the camera: "I don't fucking like it. I liked it much better when it was the Wild West."
LiveLeak has been a mainstay of internet culture for many years, its name synonymous with footage of murder, terrorism, and everyday incidents of crime and violence. A sinister doppelganger to sites like YouTube, LiveLeak was founded in 2006 and grew out of a culture of early internet "shock sites" like Ogrish, Rotten.com, and BestGore: websites that hosted violent and pornographic content with the express aim of disgusting visitors.
[D]emand for such extreme content will always exist, even if individual sites like LiveLeak come and go. In his farewell blog post, the site's founder Hayden Hewitt emphasized the importance of the site's community. "To the members, the uploaders, the casual visitors, the trolls and the occasionally demented people who have been with us. You have been our constant companions and although we probably didn't get to communicate too often you're appreciated more than you realize," he writes. "On a personal level you have fascinated and amused me with your content. Lastly, to those no longer with us. I still remember you."
LiveLeak has been a mainstay of internet culture for many years, its name synonymous with footage of murder, terrorism, and everyday incidents of crime and violence. A sinister doppelganger to sites like YouTube, LiveLeak was founded in 2006 and grew out of a culture of early internet "shock sites" like Ogrish, Rotten.com, and BestGore: websites that hosted violent and pornographic content with the express aim of disgusting visitors.
[D]emand for such extreme content will always exist, even if individual sites like LiveLeak come and go. In his farewell blog post, the site's founder Hayden Hewitt emphasized the importance of the site's community. "To the members, the uploaders, the casual visitors, the trolls and the occasionally demented people who have been with us. You have been our constant companions and although we probably didn't get to communicate too often you're appreciated more than you realize," he writes. "On a personal level you have fascinated and amused me with your content. Lastly, to those no longer with us. I still remember you."
Lastly, to those no longer with us. (Score:5, Funny)
I still dismember you
obligatory (Score:2)
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Re: obligatory (Score:2)
Yes, you did. You said it was unskilled to "only" murder one on a lowres liveleak. Implying that a high-res enactment of a murder was much more "skilled". And hence also implying that there is such a thing as a "good" murder (or "killing" as you call it).
Literally ONLY in Murica does a anti-murder stance get a (-1, Flamebait) moderation.
Your society is batshit insane.
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Nothing of value was lost.
I dunno. If you can get beyond the thrill-seeking teenagers then it's good that there's a record what's really happening out there in narco-land.
Too many people are happily keeping drugs illegal while ignoring that stuff.
Too many people are also happily sniffing coke without thinking about what's really involved in the process of getting it to them.
(Not to mention how many butts it's been up during the importation process and the general hygiene of the places where coke dealers are pitting it into baggies b
And nobody missed it (Score:2)
Nobody missed it, and nothing of value was lost.
It's not a site I'd suggest anyone visiting, but it's similar shock sites, as well as troll sites really are on their last legs because ISP's won't host them and sites that aren't ad-friendly basically have to go subscription, but people who like that content are willing to steal it from the subscription sites and let them die.
So hence, nothing of value was lost.
Re:And nobody missed it (Score:5, Insightful)
The world is a dangerous place, banning all gory videos won't change it.
While I don't encourage people to go indulge themselves in watching gory videos, I think it served an important function to humanity, as a reminder that the world is not all unicorns and fairytales.
Re:And nobody missed it (Score:4, Insightful)
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Unfortunately, the new imposed rules are inclusiveness, diversity
I 100% agree. We should exclude people who don't look exactly like us.
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But ONLY if your diverse people are visible. Your bisexuals must cheat on their wives with a man on a regular basis (reverse sex as appropriate), your foreigners cannot be white, your Jews have to mention it every other sentence, your disabled people MUST be in wheelchairs, your gays must flirt with every man they come across, your women must have a shooting gallery of strawmen misogynists for her to knock down, and your black guys must state "Shit man I was stopped by the popo three times when I was taking
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Unfortunately, the new imposed rules are inclusiveness, diversity and cancel culture. Those who don’t continually spew unicorns and fairytales will be banished.
No fairy tales are banned too e.g. because the prince didn't get consent from sleeping beauty
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2018/10/18/disney-princess-kristen-bell-has-some-real-concerns-about-snow-white-consent/
Re:And nobody missed it (Score:5, Insightful)
"banning all gory videos won't change it"
No, but it will remove the ability of normal folks to communicate about the state of the world, and that's the goal of this.
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I do actually find it backwards to hide away from the idea that other countries have less pampered areas where real inequality can rampage.
To hide away from the reality of someone being silenced. Silencing a cancelled Undesirable.
By immolating him alive. By holding him down, dousing him, and tossing a match. Then watching him flail and scream in the village dirt. Makes you want to go _back_ to when he was begging and pleading.
But nah, let's stay in the well-lit areas, the surface level of the internet, wher
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No, but it will remove the ability of normal folks to communicate about the state of the world
How so? You can discuss the state of the world all you want on multiple platforms. Unless your definition of "communicate" involves silencing alternative ideas.
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How so? You can discuss the state of the world all you want on multiple platforms. Unless your definition of "communicate" involves silencing alternative ideas.
Those videos have a communicative power that's more powerful than a text.
They should be required viewing for any debate about whether drugs should be legalized or not.
Re: And nobody missed it (Score:3)
And in the end, people will be stuffed with "fairy tales and unicorns", until all the sugar overloads their system, and they become brain dead, drooling morons. Which is exactly what the overlords want.
I hope someone takes up the torch and continues on where Liveleak left off. Yes, that means unfettered violence and gore on the net, but I see it as a small price to pay to not have an internet, and ultimately society 100% controlled by the powerful people who have nothing but the worst of intentions for ever
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And in the end, people will be stuffed with "fairy tales and unicorns", until all the sugar overloads their system, and they become brain dead, drooling morons. Which is exactly what the overlords want.
I hope someone takes up the torch and continues on where Liveleak left off. Yes, that means unfettered violence and gore on the net, but I see it as a small price to pay to not have an internet, and ultimately society 100% controlled by the powerful people who have nothing but the worst of intentions for everybody.
Fuck off you pathetic loser.
Re: And nobody missed it (Score:2)
"Fuck off you pathetic loser."
Spotted the little child of one of the overlords. What's wrong, afraid you won't be able to bully the public around like your daddy does, little boy?
The gory videos aren't really the problem (Score:2)
That said, nobody banned them. My guess is they've been getting hassled by the families of people in the footage.
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That said, nobody banned them. My guess is they've been getting hassled by the families of people in the footage.
Either that or SJWs.
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The world is a dangerous place, banning all gory videos won't change it.
There's a difference between banning something and not supporting its continued existence or declaring it as valuable to the human race.
No really *nothing of value* was lost. You don't need internet gore to know the world is a shitty place. Just turn on the news and watch people shoot each other. Liveleak was more for the sick fuckers who get off on this kind of thing and we've ample evidence that continued exposure to this causes very real harm as it normalises complete dehumanisation.
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ROFL!!! Did you just dehumanize LiveLeakers and then express concern that their exposure to Liveleaks normalizes dehumanization? In the same sentence no less! I appreciate the irony and I had a good chuckle.
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You don't need internet gore to know the world is a shitty place.
But it helps.
The world might improve if a few more SJWs were forced to watch those videos before engaging in anti-drugs debate.
.
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The world is a dangerous place, banning all gory videos won't change it.
While I don't encourage people to go indulge themselves in watching gory videos, I think it served an important function to humanity, as a reminder that the world is not all unicorns and fairytales.
This^
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The world is a dangerous place, banning all gory videos won't change it.
The word "ban" is complicated. The ISPs don't want to host these sites anymore because they're a headache. Barrage of takedown orders, bad press - It's all a hassle for the small amount of revenue. Much easier to say "Sorry, we're terminating your hosting."
Is that a "ban?" I suppose so, but it's a pretty loose definition.
Re:And nobody missed it (Score:5, Informative)
LiveLeak is where I saw lots of videos hosted on what the Chinese were doing to their own people during the start of nCov-2019.
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In chronological order:
* Dumping dirt on outbound roads from Wuhan
* Building more permanent roadblocks out of Wuhan
* Assembling bands of men with sticks to hunt down neighborhood cats and dogs and beat them to death (as zoonotic transmission was thought to be a big risk)
* Throwing their housepets out the window of high rise buildings to let them die on the pavement below
* Welding their own people into homes
* Workmen putting up signs saying that leaving your home merited severe punishment
* Transporting one w
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Oh, also, a woman in a taxi crying as she recounted seeing numerous bodies piled up for cremation.
Re: And nobody missed it (Score:2)
Re:Title - editors plz (Score:5, Informative)
Font is correct, it's from the same root as fountain - as in these gory videos just bubbled to the surface (on liveleak) from some natural unstoppable force.
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Sounds like a perfectly cromulent inkhorn term. ;)
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Have you never heard the term "a font of knowledge"?
It will live on (Score:1)
It will live on, in countless back-button clicks when you see the LiveLeak logo on YouTube. Of course, plenty of sickos will keep right on watching, but apparently not enough. News like this kind of gives me some hope for humanity.
After all, their genre was reality, not fiction. (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:After all, their genre was reality, not fiction (Score:4, Insightful)
Most of the world is racist, and most of the world if not "right wing". On liveleak, you could find everything from South African socialists murdering Nigerians for "being too black" to Yezidis in the peak of them being enslaved by Islamic State still stoning women in their villages for daring to look at a muslim man in what was perceived a romantic way.
The braindead, utterly disconnected view of Americans living in their nonsensical, wholly artificial propaganda bubble is a farce, and liveleak waas one of the best place on the internet to provide undeniable, in your face video of just how farcical of a view it is.
And so, on the modern internet where those who wish to force everyone to live in their safe space, safe in the grasp of their propaganda, liveleak stood no chance.
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Is it "tasteless" to depict reality?
Define reality. Collecting the sum of all human filth in once place and then exposing people to it in a concentrated dose is incredibly bloody far removed from reality.
I disagree with you about Youtube or TikTok. There are far more people out there who want to entertain and be entertained, than people who get off on watching real gore. And while the link between TV violence and the real world is weak at best, the same cannot be said about viewing real gore which studies have consistently shown causes real p
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Define reality. Collecting the sum of all human filth in once place and then exposing people to it in a concentrated dose is incredibly bloody far removed from reality.
Have you turned on the TV recently? It's far worse.
(Kardashians? Really???)
Re: After all, their genre was reality, not fictio (Score:2)
Is it "tasteless" to depict reality?
It absolutely can be. Isn't that obvious? There are dictionaries on the internet now... it's not going to fix a lack of empathy though.
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Some of the videos are potentially human rights violations. It's a bit of a grey area but for example under the European Convention on Human Rights everyone is entitled to dignity, even in death. Publishing some images of dead people has been found to violate those rights, and the rights of their surviving family members, in some cases.
It very much depends on the situation and if anyone objects. For example video of a cop murdering someone would likely be okay because it helps them get justice, but as I say
"Censor the gore" (Score:1)
Because we all know, if somebody is shot or stabbed, everything's Good Luck Bear rainbows and roses, ... --.--
I wish there was a shooter or melee battle game, that was the opposite of the regular ones: The actual act and "gratification" are blacked out, but the screaming, gurgling, bleeding, crying, staring into your soul, and children and relatives looking at you and coming after you would all be shown and could not be skipped.
Watching 3Guys1Hammer should be mandatory for reaching maturity. So you will nev
The Internet's Font (Score:3, Funny)
I'm kinda partial to Garamond Pro. But Lobster is nice too. Just don't get anyone started on Comic Sans. That leads to the dark side.
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It's almost as if you don't own a dictionary.
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Yes it hosted gore.. (Score:5, Insightful)
But it was also a place where you could get videos that are not butchered to death by news media. Take this as you will, but I am sick of videos being edited and censored to death, with stupid music and brainless commentary plastered over the audio. where the context can be warped to fit whatever political or corporate narritave the overlords want.
Yes, if it means seing a dead, bloody body in a video of the aftermath of an IED attack, so be it.
I've also lost track of how many supposedly 'viral videos' I heard about that got the same treatment, even if they didn't contain blood and gore, and it being damn near impossible to find the raw, unbutchered version.
Re:A hotbed of racist freaks (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you know how it's easy to tell that you didn't actually view liveleak in any meaningful amount?
You think that "racism, homophobia, misogyny and shaming" are worst things possible to accuse someone of.
This is the first mistaken notiong that looking at liveleak at length disabused you of. It's really hard to give any fucks about struggles of some random yank complaining about being called a negro on the street after you watch a bunch of Zulu socialists put a tyre on a neck of a Nigerian and set it on fire. It's really hard to give any fucks about complaints of a middle class woman bitching that she's not getting enough maternity leave when you watch Yezidis stone one of their young women to death for being suspected of having a romantic relationship with a muslim. It's really hard to give any fucks about complaints about insufficient donations to your local LGBT++++ group after you've watched a few Iranian executions of gays, where they hang them by lifting them with cranes. Which means that unlike Western style hangings, where victim dies near instantly in most cases due to rapid dislocation/breakage of the neck, you get to watch those being executed suffer for tens of minutes to hours.
It helps to calibrate your view on the world away from the nonsense you're spouting and closer to reality where serious and acute human suffering is real, and you don't need to invent microaggressions to find genuine humane suffering.
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It's true that your compatriots succeeded in blocking footage from slave camps in Xinjiang/Eastern Turkestan from being leaked. I congratulate you on being a part of an organisation that is way better than Islamic State and such at hiding their atrocities from the world.
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I'm glad we agree that this was the only contentious point in my previous post.
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Do you know how it's easy to tell that you didn't actually view liveleak in any meaningful amount?
You think that "racism, homophobia, misogyny and shaming" are worst things possible to accuse someone of.
This is the first mistaken notiong that looking at liveleak at length disabused you of. It's really hard to give any fucks about struggles of some random yank complaining about being called a negro on the street after you watch a bunch of Zulu socialists put a tyre on a neck of a Nigerian and set it on fire. It's really hard to give any fucks about complaints of a middle class woman bitching that she's not getting enough maternity leave when you watch Yezidis stone one of their young women to death for being suspected of having a romantic relationship with a muslim. It's really hard to give any fucks about complaints about insufficient donations to your local LGBT++++ group after you've watched a few Iranian executions of gays, where they hang them by lifting them with cranes. Which means that unlike Western style hangings, where victim dies near instantly in most cases due to rapid dislocation/breakage of the neck, you get to watch those being executed suffer for tens of minutes to hours.
It helps to calibrate your view on the world away from the nonsense you're spouting and closer to reality where serious and acute human suffering is real, and you don't need to invent microaggressions to find genuine humane suffering.
Too bad it doesn't help to calibrate the worldview of the white man whose shock site was closed and he is offeneded :)
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I'm sorry if that story about your favorite site closing triggered you.
BTW, your spittle-filled rant assumes a lot of things, including what I do and don't care about, and you got nearly every single one of them wrong.
Think about that while you wash your Prozac down with your last bottle of Jack Daniels.
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It's really hard to give any fucks about struggles of some random yank complaining about being called a negro on the street after you watch a bunch of Zulu socialists put a tyre on a neck of a Nigerian and set it on fire.
This is literally the problem with desensitization.
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The ones that really got me weren't those intentional acts of violence, it was the arbitrary meaningless deaths that people didn't see coming. e.g. people moving scaffolding and contacting a power line. It was any other day at work, and then they were dead. Another example was a person trying to remove a steel statue with a forklift. The statue was bolted down, one of the mounts snapped, and in a fraction of a second a person was dead. Fin.
Humans can be fatally ignorant of the energy stored in systems l
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My take on the "accidental deaths due to stupidity" is not to respect ignorance of others but fear it.
Respect the ability of the world to end you. Fear ignorance of many around you of this fact.
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I stopped checking it out years ago when every fucking video was the online equivalent of a non-stop Nazi-sponsored Klan meeting.
ie. You put your hands over your ears and went "Na na na na na na na"
That non-stop Nazi-sponsored Klan meeting is the truth of the world.
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ie. You put your hands over your ears and went "Na na na na na na na"
No, I just stopped going there. I'll try typing slower if you have comprehension issues.
For the record, my father helped kill a *lot* of Nazis in WWII, and I'd be more than happy to carry on that fine family tradition if and when the need arises.
It was better as Ogrish. (Score:1)
The comments... (Score:2)
...are what I went there for. The second they disabled commenting on videos everybody knew what would come next. I'm actually a bit surprised that crazy bald bastard kept LL going as long as he did.
liveleak was not gore (Score:2)
I was with liveleak from its literal start. It replaced ogrish, which had plenty of gore. There are websites that took up the ogrish mantle but I'm not going to give them publicity. I will simply state that liveleak wasn't it. They did show videos where people died or whatever, but you can find that on youtube. I have no idea what hayden is trying with itemfix, but it looks like they're trying to tame down liveleak even further.
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I also visited Liveleak daily for many years, and yes, most certainly the amount of "gore" decreased steadily over time. Other websites took up this mantle, and they are still up and running. Liveleak became more commercialized and main-stream over time, and reached a point where it was rare for them to show things that wouldn't be allowed on Youtube.
One of my main reasons for visiting Liveleak was not the gore (as I said, there are sites that specialize in just that), but as an attempt to get a fuller, u
They couldn't monetise it (Score:2)
Hosting wasn't the issue. After all, somebody hosts the really, really dark corners of the interwebs (e.g., Stormfront). Probably couldn't even get contracts with the really skeevy advertisers. You know, "YOUR COMPUTER HAS A VIRUS" and shit like that.