Nokia has finally decided to close its popular social networking and content sharing website, Mosh following controversies that it has permitted people to visit restricted sites at random. Mosh was launched 2 years ago, in August 2007. Smart phones and mobile handsets were customised enabling people to use it for posting and downloading - approximately 137 million downloads over the last two years. Mobile content like applications, games, videos, widgets and ring-tones could be added for no additional cost. User created and stored content could be uploaded and organised for an on-the-go access facility. However, the non-imposition of strict guidelines on its users encouraged posting and downloading of unauthorised content.

Mosh was successful enough to have drawn 1,000,000 visitors, with approximately 175,000 to 200,000 downloads per day, mostly pornography and pirated music. Anti-porn protesters led the company to even greater embarrassment.

However, Nokia has not cited any particular reason for its shutdown, but it is believed to have faced objections from movie studios and music companies as it violated the DMCA safe-harbour provisions.

Although the date of closure is yet to be confirmed, reliable sources say the date isn’t far away. Nokia is set to replace Mosh and open the new Ovi store in May 2009 providing online media and applications. Nokia promises to integrate social networking with music, gaming and location information, working in conjunction with Android, Apple, Research In Motion and Windows Mobile. Nokia plans to incorporate all the features of Mosh and is targeted to reach 300 million people by 2012.