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LiveLeak shuts down after 15 years online

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Re: LiveLeak shuts down after 15 years online

#22

The fact they were HQ'd in London always confused me. Yes the EU gives you some protections, but taking a pseudonymous TPB-style approach is probably easier for everyone (support, operations, management, marketing) than the legal grey area LiveLeak operated in. Also the end of the note from Hayden sticks with me, I know the type of videos or users he's referring to and I don't think the majority of readers will reali…

> The public internet probably isn't it. If it's not available to the public internet, what's the point? If you just make a "upload your video and we'll archive it" site, it probably won't gain any traction as people can't link to it and thus your site doesn't gain the mindshare that LiveLeak had. And I don't think people are going to start sending SD cards to a random PO box.

I would honestly hope it could be hosted and paid by an academia organisation, as the motives to drive profit behind this type of platform are so insidious - I fear we'll likely see darknet style actors step in (that is, if we haven't already - I try not to read too much about that side of the internet, having listened to some podcasts that explain just how bad it can get).

Re: LiveLeak shuts down after 15 years online

#23
post #8

LiveLeak was the only video site that still felt like the wild west. If I was ever linked to a LiveLink url I knew something crazy was about to happen. I'm sure serving this kind of content had its hurdles legally. And running a video site cannot be cheap in the first place. LiveLeak will be missed.

BitChute maybe the replacement?

Having never heard of bitchute, I just checked it out. It’s basically just right wing nut job stuff. I think LiveLeak at least was a little more “balanced”, in that it was about entertaining content, regardless of the political ideology.

Re: LiveLeak shuts down after 15 years online

#24
post #8

LiveLeak was the only video site that still felt like the wild west. If I was ever linked to a LiveLink url I knew something crazy was about to happen. I'm sure serving this kind of content had its hurdles legally. And running a video site cannot be cheap in the first place. LiveLeak will be missed.

BitChute maybe the replacement?

Just looking at the front page of BitChute it seems more conspiracy crazy than just recordings of crazy things happening.

Re: LiveLeak shuts down after 15 years online

#25

The world is a scary and violent place. Without Liveleak, you might never feel it. Until you see the actual violence and gore, it doesn't mean anything, it's just empty words. I didn't care at all about wars in the middle east until I saw the reality on Liveleak. Seeing dead children and people with their legs blown off made all the commentary on CNN and Fox seem so understated. A lot is said about desensitization as…

Agree. I was never that cognizant of what ISIS/ISIL/Daesh were capable of until I saw videos on LiveLeak that made it all very real. You won’t find those anywhere else, but I dare say that the emotions those stir in the viewer create political clarities that are razor sharp, in a way you can’t get through overly academic and stoic news articles.

Re: LiveLeak shuts down after 15 years online

#26

The world is a scary and violent place. Without Liveleak, you might never feel it. Until you see the actual violence and gore, it doesn't mean anything, it's just empty words. I didn't care at all about wars in the middle east until I saw the reality on Liveleak. Seeing dead children and people with their legs blown off made all the commentary on CNN and Fox seem so understated. A lot is said about desensitization as…

Yes. After the Vietnam war, real footage of violence left the public zeitgeist. Liveleak hosted videos that showed what life was really like when you listened to the guy who was trying to recruit you into the U.S. Army.

Re: LiveLeak shuts down after 15 years online

#27

The world is a scary and violent place. Without Liveleak, you might never feel it. Until you see the actual violence and gore, it doesn't mean anything, it's just empty words. I didn't care at all about wars in the middle east until I saw the reality on Liveleak. Seeing dead children and people with their legs blown off made all the commentary on CNN and Fox seem so understated. A lot is said about desensitization as…

War and terrorism was definitely made “more real” on LiveLeak than what you’d experience via the media or YouTube.

I also found a real appreciation for other things: driving safely, worker protections, fire safety. These “boring” things take on more importance when you can see what happens when you ignore them.

I don't think people should dwell on these morbid things. But seeing just one or two videos of, for example, a bad car crash, can really give you a healthy fear of these dangers.

Re: LiveLeak shuts down after 15 years online

#28
Mixed feelings from me. I remember the Hussein video. I never believed in the vision, but they hosted important events I simply could not see from other sites.

Reddit users rely on it and I knew what I was getting into if I clicked on a LiveLeak link.

Separately, being a content moderator for LL must be absolute hell. While you must filter for illegal things, you're actually expected to watch through the death and gore. That can not be healthy.

Re: LiveLeak shuts down after 15 years online

#29
post #3

I don't imagine it was easy to monetize most of the content they were hosting.

But if your content is free and you don't really moderate, what's hosting cost? Just gotta appeal to your clientele and your advertising will be successful. Maybe I should white-label purchase some beef jerky and just advertise on sites like this.

They do moderate it though. They have spent a fair bit of time removing certain shooting videos.
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