Bestgore.com

Bestgore.com
Web address www.bestgore.com
Type of site
 shock site/hate site/anti-censorship
Registration Optional
Available in English
Users Estimated 10 - 15 million page views per month[1]
Owner Mark Marek
Created by Mark Marek and contributors
Launched 30 April 2008[2]
Revenue Advertising and donations
Alexa rank
 Decrease 14,557 (December 2015)[3]
Current status Active

Bestgore.com is a Canadian shock site owned by Mark Marek,[4] which provides highly violent real-life news, photos and videos, with authored opinion and user comments. The site received media attention in 2012, following the hosting of a video which showed a real-life murder being committed by Luka Magnotta. As a result, Marek was arrested and charged under Canada's obscenity law with corrupting public morals. The conditions of his bail prohibit the use of computers or mobile telephones; this effectively ended his administration of the site until at least the outcome of his trial, expected in early 2016.[5] Although Marek has been unable to run the website, several contributors have kept it functioning and continue to post material on a daily basis.

Background

The site was launched on April 30, 2008 by Slovakian-Canadian Mark Marek,[6] and hosts explicit photographic and video material of events such as murders, suicides, torture, mutilations and accidents. With an estimated 10–15 million monthly visits,[7][8] Bestgore is currently the biggest shock site in the world. There are also articles promoting holocaust denial and conspiracy theories.

Controversies and legal issues

Murder of Lin Jun

In June 2012, the website was criticised for the inclusion of the graphic video titled 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick that depicts the dismemberment of a corpse following the murder of Lin Jun committed by Luka Magnotta. Police said that Marek had initially refused requests to remove the video from the site, while Marek said, "I took it down myself, on my own terms, without being asked. Had any such request by police to take it down, as alleged, been made, I would have just told them that the video had been down for days."[9][10] Gil Zvulony, a Toronto based lawyer specializing in Internet law, stated that the evidence supports the laying of obscenity charges against Bestgore.com, stating, "There's no real crime where there's no knowledge, but once they got notice of that and they allowed it to stay on there, that's where a crime was committed in my view."[10]

Corruption of morals charge

In June 2012, it was reported that the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal was investigating Bestgore.com[11] for charges of obscenity due to the posting of 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick. The Toronto Sun claimed that charges were pending on site owner Mark Marek,[12] which Marek denied.[13]

On July 16, 2013, Edmonton police charged Marek with one count of "corrupting morals" in connection with posting the Magnotta video. The rare charge is based on section 163 of the Criminal Code in Canada and can carry a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment. One police investigator described the site as "a racist website, inciting hate, hatred, violence – violence above and beyond anything normal."[7][14] Marek was released on bail, but was re-arrested on July 26 for allegedly violating the terms of his release.[15]In 2016 Marek pleaded guilty to the charges as part of a plea bargain which allowed him to avoid jailtime. [16]

In a November 2013 interview with Adrianne Jeffries of The Verge, Marek said that section 163(1) prohibits distribution of crime comics and methods of curing venereal disease, Marek noted that the law was enforced selectively and could be used indiscriminately, and defended the value of actually looking at gory material:[17]

"You can take the publishing of the chainsaw beheading[18] by the Syrian rebels propaganda team who claimed that this atrocity was committed by people behind president Bashal al-Assad. The video stirred major outrage in the ranks of the sheeple, but it didn’t fool anyone on Best Gore, because we know where the video is really from. It’s been on Best Gore since before the Syrian fraudulent revolution started and we have its full version, including the original audio and know it’s from Mexico.[19] It was the same when Best Gore busted the rebels about the publishing of the domestic gas leak explosion[20] which they also manipulated into looking like the aftermath of alleged indiscriminate bombings by the rulers.
"Or more recently, when the whole world was revving about Muslims being slaughtered by Buddhists in Burma (Myanmar)[21] – the propaganda fooled everyone, except us on Best Gore because we recognized the lynching video from Kenya,[22] the earthquake in Tibet and the tsunami disaster in Thailand which had been used in unrelated context."

Marek said that he had received testimonies from readers that viewing the images on his site had convinced them to avoid speeding, darting between traffic on motorcycle, horseplay with forklifts, even from committing suicide, and that the government itself recognized the utility of shocking images by requiring them on cigarette packaging.[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "You Heard It Here First". Best Gore. 2011-07-01. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  2. ↑ "Six Years of Best Motherfucking Gore". BestGore.com. 2014-04-30. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
  3. ↑ "Bestgore.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  4. ↑ Bambury, Brent (June 1, 2012). "Interview with Mark Marek From Best Gore website". CBC.ca.
  5. ↑ "Edmonton gore website owner to face jury in January 2016 over alleged Magnotta video". December 12, 2014. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Edmonton gore site owner charged in Magnotta video investigation released on bail". Global News. 18 July 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  7. 1 2 Canadian Press (July 17, 2013). "Gore site owner charged for posting dismemberment video in Luka Magnotta case". The Globe and Mail (Toronto). Retrieved July 17, 2013.
  8. ↑ http://www.bestgore.com/brain-fart/you-heard-it-here-first/
  9. ↑ "Statement by Marek" August 20, 2013
  10. 1 2 Cohen, Tobi (June 5, 2012). "Leaving murder video online is a crime: lawyer". National Post. Archived from the original on 2012-06-06.
  11. ↑ "Best Gore website investigated over Magnotta video" CBC.ca. June 5, 2012.
  12. ↑ Roth, Pamela (June 5, 2012). "Charges pending on Bestgore.com webmaster". Toronto Sun.
  13. ↑ Graveland, Bill (June 5, 2012). "Gore site owner says he hasn't heard from police about dismemberment video". The Canadian Press.
  14. ↑ "Police charge Edmonton gore site owner in Magnotta video investigation". Global News. July 17, 2013. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
  15. ↑ Lazzarino, Dave (July 26, 2013). "Bestgore.com operator back in custody after allegedly breaking bail conditions". QMI Agency.
  16. ↑ Reith, Terry. "Mark Marek, who posted Magnotta murder video, pleads guilty to corrupting morals". CBC. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  17. 1 2 "Mark Marek Interviewed by Adrianne Jeffries from The Verge". Politicalprisoner.ca. November 26, 2013.
  18. ↑ "Mexican Chainsaw Beheading Used in Anti Assad Propaganda". bestgore.com.
  19. ↑ "Chainsaw Beheading Video - Sinaloa Cartel Members Decapitated in Mexico - Best Gore". bestgore.com.
  20. ↑ "Man Dies in Domestic Gas Leak Explosion, Video Used for Propaganda". bestgore.com.
  21. ↑ "Ethnic Cleansing of Muslims by Buddhists in Burma". bestgore.com.
  22. ↑ http://www.politicalprisoner.ca/2013/11/interviews/mark-marek-interview-adrianne-jeffries-the-verge/Ethnic%20Cleansing%20of%20Muslims%20by%20Buddhists%20in%20Burma

External links

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