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Orkut

Orkut was a social networking service owned and operated by Google. The service was designed to help users meet new and old friends and maintain existing relationships. The website was named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten.[1]

For the name, see Orkut (given name).

Type of business

January 24, 2004 (2004-01-24)

September 30, 2014 (2014-09-30)

Worldwide

Yes

Required

Orkut was one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil in 2008.[2][3][4] In that year, Google announced Orkut would be fully managed and operated in Brazil, by Google Brazil, in the city of Belo Horizonte. This was decided due to the large Brazilian user base and growth of legal issues.[5][6][7][8]


On June 30, 2014, Google announced it would be closing Orkut on September 30, 2014.[9] No new accounts could be created starting from July 2014. Users could download their profile archive by Google Takeout.[10]


In April 2022, the website was reactivated.[11]

History[edit]

Origins[edit]

Orkut was quietly launched on January 22, 2004 by Orkut Büyükkökten,[16] a Turkish software engineer, developed it as an independent project while working at Google. While previously working for Affinity Engines, he had developed a similar system, InCircle, intended for use by university alumni groups. In late June 2004, Affinity Engines filed suit against Google, claiming that Büyükkökten and Google had based Orkut on InCircle code. The allegation is based on the presence of 9 identical bugs in Orkut that also existed in InCircles.[17]

Controversy[edit]

Fake profiles[edit]

As with any online social networking community, a number of fake and cloned profiles existed on Orkut.[23] Due to the large number of users and the deactivation of the jail system, the profiles were often left unremoved or, when removed, recreated easily.

Hate groups[edit]

In 2005, incidents of racism among Orkut users were reported to police and were documented in Brazilian media.[24] In 2006, a judicial measure was opened by the Brazil federal justice denouncing a 20-year-old student accused of racism against those of Black African ancestry and spreading defamatory content on Orkut.[25] Brazilian Federal Justice subpoenaed Google in March 2006 to explain the crimes that had occurred in Orkut.[26]


Orkut had a Report Abuse feature available for all communities. Orkut communities could be reported if they contain hateful/violent content.

Legal issues[edit]

India[edit]

On October 10, 2006, the Bombay High Court's Aurangabad bench served a notice on Google for allowing a hate campaign against India.[40] This referred to a community on Orkut called 'We Hate India', which initially carried a picture of an Indian flag being burned and some anti-India content.[41] The High Court order was issued in response to a public-interest petition filed by an Aurangabad advocate. Google had six weeks to respond. Even before the petition was filed, many Orkut users had noticed this community and were mailing or otherwise messaging their contacts on Orkut to report the community as bogus to Google, which could result in its removal. The community has now been deleted but has spawned several 'We hate those who hate India' communities. Prior to the 60th Independence Day of India, Orkut's main page was revamped. The section which usually displayed a collage of photos of various people, showed a stylized Orkut logo. The word Orkut was written in Devanagari script and was colored in Indian national colors. Clicking on the logo redirects to a post by the Orkut India ProductManager, Manu Rekhi,[42] on the Orkut internal blog. There has also been some media outcry against Orkut after a couple of youngsters were apparently lured by fake profiles on the site and later murdered.[43]


On November 24, 2006, Bombay High Court asked the state government to file its reply in connection with a petition demanding a ban on social networking site, Orkut, for hosting an anti-Shivaji Web community.[44]


In 2007, the Pune rural police cracked a rave party filled with narcotics.[45] The accused have been charged under anti-narcotic laws, the (Indian) Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropics Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS). Besides the NDPS, according to some media reports, the police were deliberating on the issue of charging the accused under the (Indian) Information Technology Act, 2000 perhaps because Orkut was believed to be a mode of communication for drug abuses of this kind.[46]


The police in India have entered into an agreement with Orkut to have a facility to catch and prosecute those misusing Orkut since complaints are rising.[47]

Brazil[edit]

On August 22, 2006, Brazilian Federal Judge José Marcos Lunardelli ordered Google to release by September 28 Orkut user's information of a list of about twenty-four Brazilian nationals, believed to be using Orkut to sell drugs and to be involved in child pornography. The judge ordered Google to pay $23,000 per day in fines until the information is turned over to the Brazilian government. According to the Brazilian government, the information would also be used to identify individuals who are spreading child pornography[48] and hate speech. As of September 27, 2006 Google has stated that it will not release the information, on the grounds that the requested information is on Google servers in the U.S. and not Google servers in Brazil, and is therefore not subject to Brazilian laws.[49]

Shutdown[edit]

On June 30, 2014, Google announced that Orkut would be shutting down completely on September 30, 2014. Users could export their photo albums before the final shutdown date. Orkut profiles, scraps, testimonials, and community posts could be exported until September 2016.[50] Google engineering director Paulo Golgher said in a blog post: "Over the past decade, Facebook, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world. Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut's growth, we've decided to bid Orkut farewell." Orkut was the result of a 20 percent project in which Google workers got to spend a fifth of their time on ideas not necessarily related to their job responsibilities.[51][52] However, the public contents of all public communities were archived by Google, and are available permanently for consulting online in the Orkut Community Archive [1] (although editing is no longer possible).


The website still exists as of April 17th, 2024, but shows a letter from the founder.

Business network

Google Buzz

List of Google products

Social software

Das, Anupam, and Susan C. Herring. "Greetings and interpersonal closeness: The case of Bengalis on Orkut." Language & Communication 47 (2016): 53-65.

online

de Sa, Vanessa Mendes Moreira. "Piracy & Social Change| From Orkut to Facebook: How Brazilian Pirate Audiences Utilize Social Media to Create Sharing Subcultures." International Journal of Communication 9 (2015): 18+ .

online

Osama Bin Laden Fan Clubs Build Online Communities

. Associated Press at Businessweek

"Google Won't Hand Data To Brazil Judge"