LiveLeak
 |
|
|
Type of site
|
Video sharing |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Founded | 31 October 2006 |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Owner | Unknown |
| Created by | Hayden Hewitt (co-founder) |
| Founder(s) | Various Co-Founders including Hayden Hewitt |
| Slogan(s) | Redefining The Media |
| Website | http://www.liveleak.com/ |
| Alexa rank |
 966 (July 2016[update]) |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Optional |
| Current status | Active |
LiveLeak is a Britishvideo sharing website that lets users post and share videos. The site was founded on 31 October 2006, launched as a tamer version of the Ogrish.com shock site; it aims to take reality footage, politics, war, and other world events and combine them with the power of citizen journalism. The site is estimated to be the 966th most popular website in the world as of July 2016. Hayden Hewitt of Manchester is the only public member of LiveLeak’s founding team.
The site has sparked much controversy, mostly due to its graphic and political content. The site came to prominence in 2007 following the unauthorized filming and leaking of the execution of Saddam Hussein, and was referred to by White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
On 30 July 2007, the BBC programme Panorama broadcast a show about how young people were getting physically assaulted and knocked unconscious. When Panorama queried the "extremely violent videos" that had been posted to LiveLeak's website, co-founder Hayden Hewitt refused to take them down, stating, "Look all this is happening, this is real life, this is going on, we're going to show it." LiveLeak states there are relatively few such videos on the site and should the uploaders be found to have participated in the violent attack or filmed it themselves, it would aid the police with any prosecutions.
LiveLeak was again in the spotlight in March 2008, when it hosted the anti-Quran film Fitna made by Dutch politician Geert Wilders. LiveLeak holds to being strictly non-biased in its approach to members and their content, believing in freedom of speech within the site rules regardless of how certain content might offend them personally.Fitna was taken down after threats were made against LiveLeak staff, but was back online on 30 March 2008 after LiveLeak reportedly improved security. The video was once again removed two days later on 1 April; this time it was removed by the user citing that it was taken down due to copyright wrangles and a new version would be uploaded "soon."
...
Wikipedia