As the mainstream media self-destructs, the alternative media continues to seed the internet with decentralized, homegrown alternatives. To combat the rise of citizen journalism, social media giants like Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube have cracked down on their users' freedom of expression by censoring discussion of taboo topics and labeling alternative news outlets as "fake news."
For example, in November, Reddit completely banned r/pizzagate in an attempt to prevent discussion on the platform, citing excessive "witch hunting." As a result, much of r/pizzagate's traffic migrated to alternatives such as Steemit, Youtube, and Minds.
Twitter has also made efforts to suppress unapproved speech by suspending accounts and preventing posts containing certain links and language. Infamously, this happened to alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, but has been occurring more and more.
Recently, Twitter didn't allow Tom Woods to tweet a link to his new Ebook:
Twitter continues to refuse to allow me to post the URL of my free eBook, Sane Space. Try it yourself: mush together Sane Space Book .com— Tom Woods (@ThomasEWoods) February 28, 2017
In regards to censorship, Youtube has not been innocent, either. Within the past year, several prominent Youtubers have reported significant loss of traffic on videos that criticize government.
Enter BitChute: the decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) video hosting platform!
BitChute--Homepage Screen capture taken 3/20/2017
Taken from the website's FAQ page, BitChute's aim is to encapsulate a complex P2P torrenting system within a streamlined web browser format. By streamlining the format, the hope is that the site would then be ready for mass adoption.
By bringing the decentralized P2P format to video hosting/streaming, users would theoretically be free from arbitrary censorship that centralized platforms like Youtube impose.
BitChute is still under development, but many alternative media outlets like Newsbud, Media Monarchy, and the Corbett Report have already joined the site and are currently posting content regularly.
Once the site gets further developed, regular users will be allowed to create their own channels and post videos. After this occurs, the site will be primed for mass adoption. Hopefully, other decentralized alternatives like Steemit and Minds will adopt the platform in lieu of Youtube.
Currently, BitChute is working to introduce a monetization platform, but details on their FAQ page are scarce in that regard.
My use of the website so far has been pretty great! Playback on any given video is smooth and not choppy. There is also a small satisfaction that comes with supporting a platform that has the potential to supplant Youtube. Hopefully more people can join in this excitement. When that happens, hopefully BitChute will be ready for the traffic.
That is all today from Liberty Weekly! I would urge all of my readers check BitChute out and integrate its use into their daily internet routines. Follow me on Twitter to receive any BitChute updates that I come across.
If you haven't already, give me a follow on Steemit at https://steemit.com/@libertyweekly.
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This article was concurrently published on my home webpage at: http://www.libertyweekly.net/2017/03/20/bitchute-the-new-youtube/
Have a great week everyone!