"Online misinformation, though usually legal, triggers real-world harm." - like all the pro-vax lies that the media loves to PROMOTE.
-NW

Jim Stone, Freelance Journalist

They might be coming after mainstream alt video sites. The "gods" may have declared Youtube be the only one. Get a load of this!

" Aug 22 (Reuters)

A day after a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York last May, the video-sharing website BitChute was amplifying a far-right conspiracy theory that the massacre was a so-called false flag operation, meant to discredit gun-loving Americans.

Three of the top 15 videos on the site that day blamed U.S. federal agents instead of the true culprit: a white-supremacist teenager who had vowed to "kill as many blacks as possible" before shooting 13 people, killing 10. Other popular videos uploaded by BitChute users falsely claimed COVID-19 vaccines caused cancers that "literally eat you" and spread the debunked claim that Microsoft founder Bill Gates caused a global baby-formula shortage.

BitChute has boomed as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook tighten rules to combat misinformation and hate speech. An upstart BitChute rival, Odysee, has also taken off. Both promote themselves as free-speech havens, and they're at the forefront of a fast-growing alternative media system that delivers once-fringe ideas to millions of people worldwide.

Searching the two sites on major news topics plunges viewers into a labyrinth of outlandish conspiracy theories, racist abuse and graphic violence. As their viewership has surged since 2019, they have cultivated a devoted audience of mostly younger men, according to data from digital intelligence firm Similarweb SMWB.N.

Online misinformation, though usually legal, triggers real-world harm. U.S. election workers have faced a wave of death threats and harassment inspired by former President Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was rigged, which also fueled the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot. Reuters interviews with a dozen people accused of terrorizing election workers revealed that some had acted on bogus information they found on BitChute and almost all had consumed content on sites popular among the far-right.

BitChute and Odysee both host hundreds of videos inspired by the QAnon conspiracy theory, whose supporters have been arrested for threatening politicians, abducting children and blocking a bridge near Arizona's Hoover Dam with an armored truck full of guns and ammunition.

My comment: If that does not read like setting the stage for shutting all of them down, even Bitchute which really is not alt at all anymore, I don't know what would. I found this via Drudge HERE

article title below:

SPECIAL REPORT-New breed of video sites thrives on misinformation and hate
CONTRIBUTORS
Andrew R.C. Marshall Reuters
Joseph Tanfani Reuters
Aug 23, 2022