The site was launched on April 30, 2008, by Slovak-Canadian Mark Marek, and hosts explicit, real-life, photographic and video material of events such as murders, suicides, torture, open surgeries, mutilations and accidents. With an estimated 10 to 15 million monthly visits, Bestgore is currently the biggest shock site in the world.
In June 2012, the website was criticized for the inclusion of the graphic video titled 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick, which depicts the rape and dismemberment of a corpse following the murder of Jun Lin 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." Gil Zvulony, a Toronto-based lawyer specializing in Internet law, stated that the evidence supported 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."
Corruption of morals charge
In June 2012, it was reported that the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal was investigating Bestgore.com for charges of obscenity due to the posting of 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick. The Toronto Sun claimed that charges were pending against Marek, which he denied. 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 Canadian Criminal Code and carries 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." Marek was released on bail, but was re-arrested on July 26 for allegedly violating the terms of his release. In January 2016, he pleaded guilty and was given a conditional sentence of three months of house arrest followed by three months of community service. In a November 2013 interview with Adrianne Jeffries of The Verge, Marek said that section 163 prohibits distribution of crime comics and methods of curing venereal disease, and noted that the law was enforced selectively and could be used indiscriminately. Marek also defended the value of actually looking at gory material:. Marek said that he had received testimonies from readers stating 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.
