How to Support Independent Media

A few weeks ago, one of my favourite media commentators, Richie Allen, had his YouTube account deleted. YouTube point to comments someone else made in some of his interviews as the reason for the ban. What’s interesting though is that these were recorded over two years ago!

Richie himself took it in his stride with calm and dignity and has since relaunched a new YouTube channel. The links to his views on this with Sarah Westall and his new channel are below.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9k_-YZ04xSnXTwM5_25L9g

Now, we can debate over whether YouTube has the right to do this as a private company or not. Likewise, we can debate over what content is suitable to be published on such a forum. I’m a parent of 2 young children so I ensure that what they watch is filtered for example. However, there’s a fine line between censorship guidelines and outright prevention of free speech.

Look at what is happening to Count Dankula in the UK at the moment. Personally, I think what he did was stupid and in very poor taste, if not disgusting. However, do I think he should get a criminal conviction over it? No.

As Voltaire said:

Perhaps a more, simple way to look at it is represented in the picture below.

But enough of the philosophical.

I’m more concerned that this is an ongoing and increasing trend with a wider agenda to suppress free speech as well as on independent media reporting what is really going on in the world.

Like Richie Allen, others are suffering from demonetisation or outright bans. Crypto currency commentators and independent media organisations such as Road to Roota, We Are Change and World Alternative Media are all victims of this.

YouTube, Facebook and Twitter etc may claim that they are private companies and therefore have the right to do this. Fair enough then, let’s let the market decide.

For me, this means unsubscribing from YouTube Red and reducing my viewing time on their platform. That goes for platforms like Google in general, Facebook and Twitter etc as well. Time to migrate to other platforms that promote freedom, privacy and liberty.

Side note: I won’t even bother discussing the CNNs and MSNBCs of the world here.

I have started supporting independent media beyond subscribing, sharing and liking their posts. If we don’t ensure these groups are funded then we can’t expect them to continue delivering the content and information we love and need.

Here are some of things I’ve started to do. Hopefully these are useful but by all means I’m open to feedback as to whether these are the most effective methods and/or there are other things I could be doing as well. Therefore, I encourage you to let me know your thoughts on this. Especially if you are part of the independent media.

Subscriptions and donations

Going direct seems like a good way to go. A lot of these sites offer subscription and/or donation options. Those of us doing well in crypto can probably afford $5-$20 per month to support these groups. A lot of them even accept cryptocurrencies. Yes, I realise now is not a good time to bring up our crypto portfolios!

At the bottom of this post I've got links to the sites I subscribe or donate to for reference.

Social Media

Whilst we need to move to a new model, a lot of independent media sources still rely on the main social media platforms to get maximum exposure. Therefore, I’ll still keep doing the subscribe, share and like thing. However, I have started using and promoting other platforms such as Steemit and D-Tube.

If you are reading this then there is no need to go into detail on those platforms. However, I will say that I personally find them a little difficult to navigate and ‘buggy’. That is to be expected this early on I guess, so I will keep persevering!

Browsers and blockchain solutions

Blockchain technology opens up all sorts of possibilities. One application which I have found interesting and useful is the Brave browser. Not only does it work well and provide a better level of privacy, but it also allows you to reward website providers you like directly with the Basic Attention Token. This allows them to still get remunerated without you having ads forced upon you. Check out the links below for more information

https://www.brave.com/

https://whatisbat.com/2017/12/06/how-to-spend-your-bat-brave-payments/

Another interesting project is Commodity Ad Network. It’s very early days but certainly something I could get behind. Again, see the link below for more info.

https://commodityadnetwork.com/

Summary

That’s where I’m at basically. Again, I encourage feedback here as I’m still on this learning journey. I strongly believe that in order for true change to happen, we need to be informed. Therefore, I have decided that supporting independent media is the cause I will get behind. I encourage all of you to the same, within your means.

Below are links to some of the groups I follow and support for reference.

Take care.