Pump.fun, a decentralized platform designed as a launchpad for Solana-based tokens/memecoins, announced the indefinite suspension of its livestreaming feature in a recent notice.
The move comes in response to the rising controversy over the platform’s livestreaming feature misuse by some users to broadcast violent, disturbing, and harmful content. The recent feature, initially envisioned as a tool to empower creators and foster community engagement, quickly devolved into a medium for harmful content, sparking widespread outrage within the crypto community.
Livestreaming Feature Turned Tool for Exploitation
The livestream feature, introduced to foster real-time interaction among token creators and their audiences, became a platform for troubling content. Users exploited its unmoderated accessibility to perform horrifying acts, ranging from self-harm threats to graphic displays of violence involving minors and animals.
The issue gained significant attention after a twitter account Beau, safety product manager at Pudgy Penguins, shared a tweet calling out a livestream incident in which a user reportedly threatened to hang themselves if their token didn’t reach $1 million market cap. Beau urged pump.fun to take down the livestream calling it “Absolutely heinous….out of control.”
The craziness doesn’t end there. In another case, a 12 year old boy in a live stream, brandished a shotgun and threatening to kill his family unless his token hit a certain market cap.
Other disturbing cases include, a couple repeatedly hitting their 3 year old toddler every 4 minutes, promising to stop only if their token reached a $15k valuation and a man threatening to shoot his dog unlss his coin hits a $1 million market cap.
Crypto Community Enraged, Demands Accountability
As these incidents came to light, the backlash against Pump.fun was severe with members of the crypto community criticizing the platform’s leadership for failing to prevent such misuse.
Critics argued that Pump.fun’s defense of free speech and promises of moderation fell short of addressing the severity of the situation.
Following the backlash, Alon, the platform’s anonymous founder, issued a public statement on X. In the statement, Alon attempted to address the growing concerns over the disturbing misuse of Pump.fun’s livestream feature. He acknowledged the community’s concerns about the harmful content being live streamed, insisting that the platform actively moderates illicit material, including images, videos, streams, and comments.
He also highlighted the presence of a moderation team, comparing Pump.fun’s approach to content tagging systems used by platforms like Reddit and X. These explanations however did little to calm the outrage with many users demanding immediate action and safeguards to prevent future incidents.
Pump.fun Reacts
In a community notice issued on November 25, Pump.fun acknowledged the severity of the situation and listed steps to address it. The platform revealed it has paused its livestreaming feature indefinitely, stating that the feature will not return until safeguards are in place.
“To ensure the absolute safety of our users, we will be pausing the live streaming functionality on the site for an indefinite time period until the moderation infrastructure is ready to deal with the heightened levels of activity,” the notice read in part.
Financial Impact on Pump.fun
The issue significantly affected Pump.fun’s financial stability. While the platform saw record breaking single-day revenue of $14.4 million on November 23, the backlash led to a 74% drop in revenue within 24 hours.
However, despite the controversies, the platform continues to attract creators, with over 50,000 tokens minted daily according to data provided by the platform.
