“I feel personal pride that no more children will be added to Omegle’s body count,” says the woman who successfully forced the infamous chat site to shut down.
Speaking for the first time since the platform was taken offline, “Alice” or “A.M.” as she’s known in court documents, tells the BBC she demanded the website’s closure as part of an out-of-court settlement.
Omegle’s popularity rose during the pandemic lockdowns in 2020, and was the subject of a BBC investigation which revealed that prepubescent boys were found to be explicitly touching themselves in front of strangers.
On Friday, a week after Leif Brooks closed his chat service with a lengthy statement, he added a sentence at the bottom: “I thank A.M. for opening my eyes to the human cost of Omegle.”
Cyber Correspondent Joe Tidy speaks exclusively with child abuse survivor “Alice” and her legal team, as they prepare a case that could have major consequences for social media companies.
Alice’s case is a legal landmark, as most social media lawsuits in the US are dismissed under a catch-all protection law called Section 230, which exempts companies from being sued for things that users do on their platforms.
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