Information Censorship Drives Users From YouTube To Crypto Powered Video Platforms

Centralized digital platforms and social networks have gone under fire regarding their handling of user privacy. These platforms have also been under scrutiny for information censorship, and this is driving users towards the adoption of crypto powered decentralized networks.

There is a current information war on the internet, and social media sites have entered the fray. Users are continually fighting for the freedom to express themselves while policies implemented by social media platforms and tech companies go against this pursuit of freedom. Individual narratives are being blocked from spreading on social media sites, and this has created the fear that only the subjective truth will prevail and any other opinion contrary to it will cease to exist.

YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Google Play, and Apple are some of the social media and tech companies that have been involved in information censorship scandals. One example is that of Alex Jones, who saw his accounts with all those platforms closed down due to controversial opinions.

The slippery slope of censorship

Information censorship is tricky to navigate, and once it is initiated, there is no telling to what extent it might go. It is especially concerning when social media sites like Twitter, which gained popularity due to their free speech policies, shift and start employing censorship tactics.

The internet and social media have taken a turn towards blocking out individual standings, which are considered radical. Facebook, for example, has 15,000 moderators whose job is to monitor activity on the social media site and ensure that the content being posted by users adheres to what the site considers as acceptable speech.

The crypto powered alternatives

There is growth in the number of people who are seeking decentralized alternatives to traditional social media networks. There are pro-crypto and anti-censorship companies that have come into the market, and people are considering these options because they promote free speech. Companies such as Gab, Verasity, and Bitchute have created setups that are attractive to free speech enthusiasts.

Verasity provides video services similar to Google’s YouTube but without the restriction on content that exists on the latter. These sites also encourage online crypto trading by allowing content creators to monetize their content through digital assets. In so doing, crypto powered video sites create viable alternatives for vloggers, which are different from YouTube’s ad revenue model.

Aside from Verasity, many other crypto powered platforms are offering similar services to influencers that have been kicked off YouTube. Bitchute is also a video platform which uses P2P torrenting technology which put Bitcoin and BitTorrent in the positions they are.

Dtube, another crypto powered video platform, states that the decentralized nature of IPFS and STEEM blockchain, it is not able to censor videos. Bitcoin Cash holders have access to Cinema.cash, a video platform which allows content creators to be paid in BCH while maintaining strict anti-censorship standards. The best cryptocurrency exchanges may also benefit from this as the numbers of crypto users will grow.

YouTube’s dominance

YouTube remains the top video content platform worldwide, and knocking it off its position won’t be an easy feat to achieve. Decentralized platforms still have a long way to go before they can become the dominant video platforms. As more people seek freedom of expression, decentralized video platforms may be the future.