Omegle shuts down after its founder acknowledges ‘unspeakably heinous crimes’

• Omegle is shutting down after 14 years of popularity with teens and YouTubers.
• Founder Leif K-Brooks acknowledged “lowlights” of the random chat site in a letter to users.
• The company settled a civil claim regarding sexual abuse days before closing down, the AP reported.

Omegle — the site that matched random strangers and served as entertainment for some Gen Z sleepovers, but also had a disturbing side — will shut down.

When he launched Omegle as in 2009, then-18-year-old founder Leif K-Brooks saw the internet as a “global village,” he said in a long post Thursday. He said he wanted the site to be like “strolling down a street in that village, striking up conversations with the people you ran into along the way.”