Amazon Cost Cuttingĭespite it's legacy of over a decade, Wickr Me is still a relatively small player in the world of messaging apps, when put up against its competitors, and it's main selling point, end-to-end-encryption, has been adopted by most mainstream platforms since.Īt a time when Amazon is making urgent spending and staff cuts, its unlikely that the company wants to spend its time working on an app that has a limited userbase, and that is also mired in recent controversy. One of the reasons that Wickr Me is deemed the criminals messaging app of choice, is that it unlike WhatsApp or Apple Messages, it requires no personal details to sign up for an account. What's more, Wickr's owner, Amazon, was highlighted as not doing enough to clamp down on illegal content on the platform, enabling it to thrive through inaction.Īmazon is committed to preventing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in every segment of our business, including Wickr, which maintains strict Terms of Use that clearly prohibit illegal activity. Wickr has found itself in the headlines more than it would like of late, with the revelation earlier in the year that the app hosted a thriving community of criminals, which used the messaging service to communicate undetected.Īccording to a report by NBC, Wickr was named as being the “go-to destination” for people looking to exchange images of child sex abuse, as noted by court documents, law enforcement and anti-exploitation activists. Wickr Me customers have been told that details will follow soon on how they will be able to preserve their existing data. The government is actually a heavy user of the Wickr platform, with the CIA investing over $1 million dollars in the company in the past. However, the solutions that are currently being used by government and enterprise clients, AWS Wickr and Wickr Enterprise, will remain a core focus for the company. In a blog post on the Wickr site, the announcement was made that sign ups to the app would cease on the 31st of December 2022, and that the app would close completely on the 31st of December 2023.
In June 2021, the company was purchased by Amazon Web Services (AWS), and now, just over a year later, the company has taken the decision to close down the public version of the messaging app.
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