As YouTube is currently down site-wide (doing God knows what), yet will no doubt be up and running again in no time, it is a perfect opportunity for everyone to take a moment and consider what social media would be like without such an all-consuming government-infiltrated monopolistic platform overshadowing all others, and dictating who and what will be seen and consequently who and what will be "popular."

The truth is, not much different than it is now, except that one's views, interaction and reach would actually be decided organically, instead of by political and personal interests from behind the scenes. We would each be using a variety of different platforms for a variety of different reasons; interestingly, exactly how it was before our social media sphere was entirely hijacked by nefarious parties.

The times are indeed changing, as we all witnessed with many well-known and well-respected outlets deleted with no warning and no real explanation from Facebook and Twitter. Not to mention the fact that the intensity with which YouTube censors, suppresses and stifles content is no secret among anti-establishment channels. It appears as well that such measures of government control are only on the rise. So I have listed below a grouping of some of the best alternatives to the large, highly controlled, social media platforms for you to test and hopefully begin a transition into. Because whether it is another site-wide outage, or just the fact that you are the next to be suppressed or censored, it is time we began to find new ways to connect on the Internet that do not include such obvious connections to government control as NATO and the Atlantic Council.

Bitchute

BitChute aims to put creators first and provide them with a service that they can use to flourish and express their ideas freely.

DTube

Decentralized Tube (or DTube for short) is a YouTube-like video platform that is built as an application on top of Steemit. So it’s on the same platform utilizing the same rules but specifically for video content. Essentially, users post videos, and are rewarded for creating and uploading content.

Real.Video

REAL.video is the new solution to YouTube censorship and anti-liberty authoritarianism. It's passionately dedicated to a mission of educating people all over the world on the subject of natural healing remedies and personal liberty (food freedom, medical freedom, the freedom of speech, etc.).

www.dailymotion.com

Dailymotion is a video-sharing technology platform that allows the content creator to earn revenue for their content.

Steemit

Steemit is a social media platform where everyone gets paid for creating and curating content.

Minds.com

Minds is an open source and decentralized social network for Internet freedom, where users earn crypto tokens for their contributions to the network.

Yours.org

Crypto-focused social network which enables contributors to earn Bitcoin Cash for creating content.

Gab.ai

Gab is an ad-free social network dedicated to preserving individual liberty, the freedom of speech, and the free flow of information on the internet.

www.tikkit.co.uk

Tikkit is a powerful space, for both networking and organizing.

www.diasp.org

Diaspora is a nonprofit, user-owned, distributed social network that is based upon the free Diaspora software.The online social world where you are in control.

www.vk.com

VK allows users to message each other publicly or privately, to create groups, public pages and events, share and tag images, audio and video, and to play browser-based games.

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There are many more out there, and many more on the way (and I will add them as I see them, or you send them to me). Ben Swann even just announced that he was in the process of creating a new blockchain-based platform called "Isegoria." The point is that the real choice has always been ours, despite their efforts to cow us into specific ways of communicating, and through that, specific lanes of thought. We just have to realize once again where the power truly lies, and that has always been with the people, the true majority.