Last Tuesday’s live stream was removed by YouTube for “inappropriate content”. It is still in the appeals process, but I just want to share one thought here.
Like virtually all people I know of who have had content removed or who have been deplatformed, I was not given any specifics about why my video was removed. But having experienced this now firsthand, I can say what it has caused me to do.
Going forward, any significant content I post anywhere will be posted to alternative sites. There already exist companies that are building alternatives to the major platforms, but with the express purpose of promoting free speech. These platforms are obviously smaller and not as sophisticated as the big ones, but I only see them growing and becoming better as more and more people get tired of being censored and having their favorite creators censored.
I know that, because people sin, no platform is a utopia. So I will not be surprised if, a few years down the road, I’m writing a similar article about how the platforms I’ve moved to have become the ones I’m leaving for similar reasons. We work with what God provides. The alternative sites I have chosen all claim to exist to promote free speech, so seem to me to be the less likely to start engaging in censorship in the near future.
So, going forward, if you see content or announcements on any of the big platforms listed below, I will be dual-posting that content to the ones they point to. Video uploads take some time, and so may not be available everywhere as quickly. Still, take a moment and check out these sites.
I will also post many things to SubscribeStar as free content whenever it is free somewhere else.
If you value free speech and don’t want to lose track of content creators, there are several things you can do that cost you nothing.
- Get on their email lists. This is the most important thing. If you get their emails, you are reachable when they make changes to strategy, like this one. If they are deplatformed, they can still reach you with content and instructions on where to find them. You can get on mine by filling out the information under the “Free Ebook” title in the sidebar.
- Bookmark their websites, and get an RSS feed app or plugin that gives you updates when they make post to their own site. This gets you access to their content unfiltered. If their content isn’t allowed somewhere, it will almost surely be available somehow at their website.
- Subscribe and follow on the alternative sites, and sign up for notifications. The more people are using these other platforms, the less power the main platforms will have to censor, and it will have the added benefit of attracting more creators to the alternative platforms.
I’m a believer that markets fix bad business, and so I do believe that censorship, if it continues, will ultimately be the downfall of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. And now there are alternatives. Part of the markets is word-of-mouth “marketing”. I don’t get paid by any of these platforms, so what you’re reading isn’t marketing per-se, but it is promotion. Sign up, subscribe, and look for all your favorites, especially in politics and religion, to be moving to new places soon, if they haven’t already.