The shutdown followed a massive federal crackdown on the file-sharing community, most notably the arrest of KickAssTorrents proprietor Artem Vaulin in Poland. While the owner of Torrentz was never publicly identified or arrested, the site's voluntary closure was seen as a preemptive move to avoid a similar fate. The Legacy of Clones and Shadows
In August 2016, following the high-profile arrest of the founder of KickassTorrents, Torrentz unexpectedly shut down. There was no legal raid or official explanation; the site owners simply turned off the search function and replaced the landing page with two famous messages:
"Torrentz was a free, fast and powerful meta-search engine..." "Torrentz will always love you. Farewell." The Legacy (The "Clones")
