
Army Psychological Operations Officer and State Department Counterterrorism Contractor OVERVIEW There may be more to the New Zealand shooting event which just occurred than meets the eye. Wikimedia Commons has media related to LiveLeak.By Scott Bennett, Ph.D.


On, the LiveLeak website closed, with site visitors being redirected to. Those who did not want to log in to LiveLeak would only see suggested videos that were hosted by YouTube, Dailymotion and vk.com. After 14 June 2020, it became possible to log into the website and view LiveLeak's hosted videos again. Īt the beginning of June 2020, LiveLeak was temporarily disabling the ability to log into the website, and it also only suggested videos from other sources, such as YouTube or Dailymotion. On 30 March 2019, Australian telecom Telstra denied millions of Australians access to websites 4chan, 8chan, Voat, Zero Hedge, and LiveLeak as a response to the video of the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand spreading. The website continued to host the original video that depicted the aftermath of Foley's execution for its historical relevance as it did not depict the beheading itself.

In response to the James Foley video, Hewitt posted that LiveLeak's policy had been updated to ban all beheading footage produced by ISIS. When it was reported on by US News & World Report, YouTube and Facebook deleted all related footage and implemented bans, demand increased for LiveLeak's footage as they currently allowed this. On 19 August 2014 a video depicting the beheading of US journalist James Foley was posted by Islamic State terrorists on YouTube and other sites. On 24 March 2014, LiveLeak and Ruptly announced a content partnership. However the video was soon removed again over a copyright claim. The re-post date was 30 March 2008 after arrangements for Hewitt's family and safety had been improved. Fitna was taken down for 48 hours as personal threats against Hewitt, the only public representative of the site, peaked. LiveLeak was again in the spotlight in March 2008, when it was hosting the anti- Quran film Fitna made by Dutch politician Geert Wilders. When Panorama queried the "extremely violent videos" that were posted to LiveLeak's website, co-founder Hayden Hewitt refused to take them all down, stating: "Look, all this is happening, this is real life, and this is going on, and we're going to have to show it." On 30 July 2007, the BBC program Panorama broadcast a show on how street violence between children as young as 11 was being posted on websites including LiveLeak. This, among others, earned the site a mention from White House Press Secretary Tony Snow as the likely place to see updates or stories from active soldiers.

LiveLeak first came to prominence in 2007 following the filming and leaking of the execution of Saddam Hussein. Cockpit video of a Hellfire missile being fired at targets in Afghanistan
