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Ever since YouTube began censoring videos containing “controversial” content it has been harder to find videos by our favorite content creators. Some videos have been placed in a limited state while others are now more difficult to find. You may have noticed that recently uploaded videos are not appearing in your feed and that you may have to do a bit of searching before finding new content. Many content creators are using alternative platforms to publish and advertise their videos on websites devoted to free speech.
Here are a few websites you can use to find content that is not subject to YouTube’s censorship policies so that you can stay up to date on what is going on and support your favorite content creators.
Vid.me is a video sharing website similar to YouTube. It has recently become popular among content creators that have been demonetized or had their videos put into a limited state by YouTube. The vid.me community is much smaller than the YouTube community so there is lots of engagement and discussion between content creators and viewers. Some content creators are publishing content on vid.me that cannot be found on YouTube. The website is easy to use and has a similar layout to YouTube’s with a few caveats. Monetization is entirely dependent on donations from the viewers and subscribing to a channel will cost you at least $1 a month. You can still easily access info without subscribing by following a channel you like.
First of all, Gab’s logo looks just like Pepe the Frog and I would not be surprised at all if it was based off Pepe entirely. Gab has probably received more attention from the mainstream media than any other alternative social media network. Many prominent journalists have dubbed it the “right wing twitter”. Gab does in fact function quite similarly to twitter but is dedicated to idea of free speech. Just like twitter you can repost and up-vote posts you like but unlike twitter you have the option to down-vote posts that you dislike. The platform currently has well over 200,000 users and is continuing to grow but have run into a few difficulties due to negative coverage by the mainstream media. Gab is currently working on a Gab TV for users to post videos and it is rumored that they will also begin to set up a platform for monetization in the future.
If you’re sick and tired of Facebook then minds.com might just be perfect for you. Minds is sort of like a twitter/facebook hybrid without the bullshit. It is perhaps the most successful of the alternative social networks with over 3 million users and growing. Most of your favorite YouTubers and Podcasters that have been pushed around by facebook, twitter and YouTube are already on minds. Minds is looking further into monetization and decentralization for the platform but there are already some forms in monetization in place. There is ad based monetization for bloggers as well as a program similar to Patreon called “wire me”. There is also a pay wall system. Out of all the alternative social networks mentioned on this list, minds.com is my personal favorite. It’s easy to use, runs well, has an phone app and a lot of my favorite content creators are on there too.
Bitchute is a decentralized, torrent based, peer to peer video sharing platform that is still currently under construction. It looks a lot like YouTube at a glance, they use a similar color scheme and page layout, but doesn’t have an cellphone app and is a bit less user friendly than vid.me. When YouTube first began its spree of demonetization and placing videos in limited states many of our beloved YouTubers created accounts on bitchute. Usually content creators post videos on both YouTube and Bitchute but they are, in no way, competition for YouTube. Content creators like Lauren Southern and Styxhexenhammer666 whose videos get thousands of views on YouTube rarely garner more than a few hundred on bitchute. Bitchute may need improvements but at least you will find videos on there not normally available on YouTube.
Follow James on Twitter @JamesCMcilnay
