David Duke, former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, frequently posts videos on a website called Odysee. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones also streams his podcast, “The Alex Jones Show,” on the site. It works a lot like YouTube and attracts millions of views each month.

Anti-hate groups say the site is a hotbed of extremism where users from around the world — including promoters of U.S.-designated terrorist group the Nordic Resistance Movement, Holocaust deniers and Proud Boys supporters — use Odysee’s data storage and financial features to spread their views and raise money. Users also take advantage of the forum’s near complete lack of content moderation. The site’s CEO said he’s dedicated to keeping the company “censorship resistant.”

The site also comes with strong New England ties. Odysee was created by a now-defunct New Hampshire cryptocurrency company and began with seed money from a downtown Boston-based venture capital firm called Pillar VC, financed by a diverse constellation of local investors.

  • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Megan Squire, co-author of the report and the center’s deputy director for data analytics,

    “They want a place that’s not going to tell them they’re not allowed to say hateful, terroristic, illegal things,’’ she said. “Odysee plays that role and that’s a problem.”

    If it’s illegal, arrest them. If not, well…

    I mean, my boy Louis Rossmann prefers Odysee so it’s not just a hive of scum and villainy.

    • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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      2 months ago

      Yes because extremists get pushed there. Today you are an extremist if you would like to genocide whole races or want to get rapairable electronics. Totally the same amount of anti-social behaviour

    • JoYo@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      Rossman could self host his arm chair philosophy. instead they choose to associate with degenerates.

      • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        By that metric, everyone on Lemmy is guilty by association. It’s federated decentralized so you get the whole range of shitty opinions.

        • JoYo@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          yes, exactly.

          they want to use odysee for discoverability because they know who their audience is.

          they would post on Lemmy if we had even more degenerates here.

          • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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            2 months ago

            I don’t understand your point. Is Rossmann guilty of associating with criminals because he wants to be discoverable and monetize his content on Odysee?

            • JoYo@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              “guilty by association” are your words.

              I am free to judge people by who they associate with and I judge Rossmon for it and tell people that I do.

              In the US, the freedom to associate is accompanied by a freedom to not associate, as protected by the first amendment of the US constitution. Much like I can judge someone by what they say I can also judge someone by who they associate with.

      • WolvenSpectre@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        Do you know how much it would cost him to host his stuff. He would have to do it instead of his business. Hosting video is not a simple thing. YOU pay for the bandwidth for every user that streams or downloads you video, unless you want him to cut his reach by a 3/4 and host it by torrent. And that is just the video… push notices for new videos because he is not on a broad platform for discoverability, which would also mean he would have to spend allot of time advertising his content… It just doesn’t stop.

        And that is if he would be OK with most enterprise models on serving his content, which we both know he isn’t.

        • JoYo@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          oh yah, self hosting is very expensive.

          he should put his money where his mouth is, get off his armchair, and do it.

          • WolvenSpectre@lemmy.ca
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            2 months ago

            So he should personally fund the right to repair fight AND host his own videos because you want him too? Spoiled brat much. Welcome to the Blocklist Enjoy your stay.