Only thing I know about Omegle is all the pranking videos and people playing music for others on youtube. Like https://www.youtube.com/@SomethingAboutChickens or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKbLGu4xsPE
Omegle 2009-2023
71–80 of 1001 posts
Re: Omegle 2009-2023
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As a young girl, Alice (not her real name) logged on to the popular live video chat website, Omegle, and was randomly paired with a paedophile, who coerced her into becoming a digital sex slave. Nearly 10 years later the young American is suing Omegle in a landmark case that could pave the way for a wave of lawsuits against other social platforms. This is fucked. We shouldn't have to put safety padding on everythin…
It's horrible that this happened and obviously I'm glad the pedophile is in jail, but how exactly was she "coerced"? And how is any of this Omegle's fault?
Yeah it's unfortunate, but I don't think Omegle is exactly at fault here. Perhaps we should consider the abuser to be the one at fault?
Re: Omegle 2009-2023
#73To the founder of Omegle, I would say: do not lose heart. The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice. In the end, we will prevail over those who destroy the good works of others under the guise of false victimhood and social justice, and build a very special place in hell for them, where we will condemn them for all eternity.
I don't really see what aspect of this situation involves a false sense of victimhood, unless you are referring to the multimillionaire founder who is unwilling to add age verification to their website.
>unless you are referring to the multimillionaire founder who is unwilling to add age verification to their website.
Mandated ID checks are fine as long as we're using it to bludgeon the privileged in the process?
Re: Omegle 2009-2023
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Regardless of any arguments about legitimacy, the optics of the EFF and ACLU defending Omegle against a child sex abuse victim are horrible. They need to raise funds from donors and having to explain that they fought against an individual abuse victim seems like the kind of position they would want to avoid. What I imagine they would do is fight against any overzealous legislation some politician tries to throw toget…
Didn't the ALCU defend Nazis in the past?
And satanists. And homophobic churches. They used to know no point on the political compass and would defend all liberties.
Re: Omegle 2009-2023
#75its ironic the tool he created probably help organised and amplify the evil forces that harms other people including children?
+ the tool creator shouldnt be at the helm when it goes super viral. cos once everyone shows up, it will as the microbiologist and ecologist rene dubois observed, "[any successful social innovation can be] pushed to the point of absurdity".
when a tool goes viral i suppose it should be "taken over" (reeks of totalitarianism no?) by the community but it clashes with the ethos of proprietary, capitalist and indivdualist culture, the need for the culture to spotlight one person, they want them to become very famous and become very rich which leads to hate directed at them. where is the compassion for a mark zuckerberg say?
its not that evil shut this person and their service down, its more like a hammer finally whacking a nail down thats been sticking out too long.
better to be anonymous and not so successful. nothing fails like success. u could meet random people on IRC too, because its not so sticking out, its still operating.
Re: Omegle 2009-2023
#76This is like suing Google because a scammer used Gmail
Re: Omegle 2009-2023
#77I don't know the whole story, but this seems very genuine. It echoes a sentiment I imagine many people my age feel, where the magic of the early internet we witnessed during our coming of age feels threatened. I feel for him, and hope he's able to move onto other projects which aren't as stressful.
This is kind of revisionist history though. The early 2010s were not so long ago. Nobody talked about Omegle as some magical safe place of real human connection. It was always viral because of the edginess and danger. There were genuinely good stories you would see about it, but the impact was strong precisely because everyone knew the dark side.
Re: Omegle 2009-2023
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Regardless of any arguments about legitimacy, the optics of the EFF and ACLU defending Omegle against a child sex abuse victim are horrible. They need to raise funds from donors and having to explain that they fought against an individual abuse victim seems like the kind of position they would want to avoid. What I imagine they would do is fight against any overzealous legislation some politician tries to throw toget…
> optics Didn’t they used to specifically and notably not care about this? See ACLU defense of neo nazi march.
Money corrupts all.
Re: Omegle 2009-2023
#79I don't know the whole story, but this seems very genuine. It echoes a sentiment I imagine many people my age feel, where the magic of the early internet we witnessed during our coming of age feels threatened. I feel for him, and hope he's able to move onto other projects which aren't as stressful.
I find it interesting that the "magical period" seems to be determined by your age. For me, the internet has already lost its magic by the time the mid 2000s came around, well before Omegle came out in 2009. For me, the magical period was the early 90s, when I was growing up. In 15 years, are people going to be talking about the current internet as the time when the magic was there? It seems more about the magic of c…
I agree and I think this era absolutely will be remembered fondly by kids who grew up with it. The streamer/YouTuber culture is massive and to many young people now that makes up a big part of their life. Many people are already waxing poetic about the "golden eras" of sites like Twitch.
Re: Omegle 2009-2023
#80While I totally understand there's the potential for abuse, I don't think Omegle should be penalized for stuff like this. From my understanding, there's no addictive, profit-maximizing matchmaking or anything going on - it's just a service which lets two strangers talk to one another. Of course you will have bad actors target any platform, but for a lowkey site, it seems sad that they would need to shut down because of something like this.