Wickr Me, an encrypted messaging app owned by Amazon has disclosed its plans to halt the acceptance of new users on the platform on December 31, 2022, as it plans to shut down operations at the end of next year.
The platform disclosed that the shutdown will only affect the consumer-faced version, as it seeks to prevent users, most especially whistleblowers and journalists from sending self-destructive messages while noting that its other products, which are geared towards government agencies, military organizations, and enterprises won’t be affected.
Following Wickr’s plan to shut down, its Parent company Amazon said, “After careful consideration, we will be concentrating Wickr’s focus on securing our business and public sector customers’ data and communications with AWS Wickr and Wickr Enterprise, and have decided to discontinue our consumer product, Wickr Me”.
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The company further stated that it was working on allowing Wickr customers to securely communicate with individuals outside of their organization.
Court records reveal that Wickr Me has become a platform where most of its users exploit children, with law enforcement agencies accusing them of handling the issue with levity.
Also, reports reveal that there are various posts linking Wickr to child sexual abuse material, which is littered across the net. On Twitter, a search for “Wickr” yielded posts with Wickr usernames and the hashtags “teen,” “perv” and “nolimits.”
Despite the fact that the app has fewer users compared to other popular social media platforms, reports disclose that instances of child sexual abuse are relatively high on the platform.
In a statement made earlier, a spokesperson at the parent company said the company acts quickly on reports of illegal behavior, thereby taking the appropriate actions, as anyone found guilty of violation is subject to account termination, yet the platform is still called over the increase of child abuse acts.
The app has been saddled with so many complaints, which has seen it come under scrutiny for reportedly not doing enough to crack down on the exchange of child sex abuse images, which might be the possible reason why its parent company has decided to shut it down at the end of next year.
