Technology Alternative Social Media and Tech

[Husky_Khan]

So there's a lot of them out there. I have accounts with none of them... though then again I also don't have a Twitter, Reddit and have an inactive Facebook account but anyways... there seems to be a plethora of social media platforms out there, many of them extolling the virtues of free speech, privacy and other benefits that publishers like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit do not.

Some like Gab have been largely excised by a total non conspiracy of international financial institutions to de-platform them due to their being havens for alt right wrong think, while other platforms like Parler seem more 'mainstream right wing' and then you have a platform like Minds which seems more mainstream and acceptable but also more moderated as well though clearly not as badly curated as mainstream publishers like Twitter.

Then there's Thinkspot which... might be a myth. I have no idea what's going on with Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin's pet project tbh...

Have any of you given any of these platforms a try or have opinions on any or all of them? Are any worth checking out or joining?

Spoiler: Index of Alt Technology Sites

Alternatives Web Browsers:

The browser that puts you first | Brave

The Brave browser is a fast, private and secure web browser for PC, Mac and mobile. Download now to enjoy a faster ad-free browsing experience that saves data and battery life by blocking tracking software.

brave.com

Fast and Private Web Browser

Waterfox is the privacy-focused web browser engineered to give you speed, control, and peace of mind on the internet.

www.waterfox.net

The Tor Project | Privacy & Freedom Online

Defend yourself against tracking and surveillance. Circumvent censorship.

www.torproject.org

Trends | People-Powered News

Dissenter Trends is a place to discover what the Internet is talking about today.

dissenter.com

Alternatives to Youtube:

Rumble

Rumble is your rights management video platform. Host, distribute and monetize all your professional, social and viral video.

rumble.com

Bitchute

Bitchute is a video service that prioritizes creators and champions users' freedoms and privacy.

bitchute.com

Odysee

Explore a whole universe of videos on Odysee from regular people just like you!

odysee.com

Brand New Tube

BrandNewTube.com is a Video Sharing Platform. Focusing on news of the world. A platform which wouldn’t suppress your opinions. We will not hide the truth!!

www.brandnewtube.com

Alternative Search Engines:

DuckDuckGo - Protection. Privacy. Peace of mind.

The Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs.

duckduckgo.com

The right search. Unrivaled privacy. Yippy provides unrivaled privacy for its users and delivers fair search results based on balanced algorithms.

The right search. Unrivaled privacy. Yippy provides unrivaled privacy for its users and delivers fair search results based on balanced algorithms.

www.yippy.com

Alternatives to Facebook/Reddit:

The Leading Alternative Social Network

An open source, community-owned social network dedicated to privacy, free speech, monetization and decentralization. Break free from big censorship, algorith...

minds.com

MeWe: The best chat & group app with privacy you trust.

Brilliant features with no BS. No Ads. No Spyware. MeWe is the Next-Gen Social Network.

mewe.com

Poal: Say what you want.

Poal: Say what you want.

poal.co

Aether

getaether.net

Pleroma — a lightweight fediverse server

pleroma.social

ts. Think Responsibly

ts. Think Responsibly

www.thinkspot.com

Alternatives to Twitter:

Parler Free Speech Social Network

Parler is an unbiased social media focused on real user experiences and engagement. Free expression without violence and no censorship. Parler never shares your personal data.

parler.com

Gab Social

Gab is a social network that champions free speech, individual liberty and the free flow of information online. All are welcome.

gab.com

https://truthsocial.com/

Bastyon

A Revolutionary anti-censorship decentralized publishing and social platform. Based on the blockchain technology, it runs on a set of computers around the world, not controlled by any single entity. Self-policed by users with good reputation where nobody records your keystrokes, viewing habits...

pocketnet.app

GETTR - The Marketplace of Ideas

GETTR is a brand new social media platform founded on the principles of free speech, independent thought and rejecting political censorship and “cancel culture”. With best in class technology, our goal is to create a marketplace of ideas in order to share freedom and democracy around the world.

gettr.com

Alternative Instant Messaging/Chat Apps:

Element | Secure collaboration and messaging

Element is a Matrix-based end-to-end encrypted messenger and secure collaboration app. It’s decentralised for digital sovereign self-hosting, or through a hosting service such as Element Matrix Services. Element operates on the open Matrix network to provide interoperability and easy connections.

element.io

Telegram – a new era of messaging

Fast. Secure. Powerful.

telegram.org

Alternative Crowdfunding Sites:

https://www.givesendgo.com/

Locals

Locals makes it simple for creators to start a subscription based community and make money directly from their supports.

www.locals.com

REST IN PEACE:

Voat

Seek and Speak Truth

voat.co

 

[Whitestrake Pelinal]

Have any of you given any of these platforms a try or have opinions on any or all of them? Are any worth checking out or joining?

Gab Social : A replacement for twitter, which I need about as much as I need hemorrhoids. The twitter format is cancer and encourages vapid communication while discouraging serious discourse.

Parler Free Speech Social Network : Another replacement for twitter. Claims free speech, but "conservative speech" would be a more honest claim.

The Leading Alternative Social Network | Minds : a non-leftist replacement for facebook. I used it for a while, but see less and less merit in the format. Better to 'network' with people I speak to face-to-face and call family or friends and speak to them on the phone. Had some decent dudes on it, like Colin Flaherty, but not sure how much it matters given the format.

BitChute is a peer-to-peer social video platform. : non-leftist alternative to google youtube, seems to be steadily growing and improving. Increasing number of political youtubers mirroring here, like Tim Pool, and a few (such as Styxhexenhammer666) have bitchute exclusives to promote the platform. Has some neat tech, uses webtorrenting to mitigate some of their bandwidth costs, and seems fairly solid regarding not removing content that leftists lose their shit over.

Voat - Have your say : a free speech replacement for reddit which I enjoy using, offers the closest thing to free speech on the internet, limits boil down to no CP or threats of violence, with strong mod-logging enforced so everyone can see how each subverse is operated. Heavily used by the alt-right, also used by some one-off reddit communities that got shoah'd such as fatpeoplehate.

Poal: Say what you want. : another free speech reddit replacement, much smaller than voat but also more moderate in tone.

Secure Chat App Element | encrypted group video calls end-to-end encryption team messaging | Matrix open network (formerly Riot.im) : non-leftist replacement for Discord, utilizes Matrix.org . Cannot yet speak to this but I will in the future.

 

[PsihoKekec]

I hear some people also started using VK, which is Russian eqivalent of facebook, since the limitation of registration only in Russia was removed.

 

[Laskar]

Well, I can report that MeWe is functional-ish. I have a hell of a time finding anyone, and we seem to be locked into our separate groups. You have your own page, just like Facebook, but you don't have a feed showing what other people are doing.


What it does have is a chat function for groups. It's nice, but I'm still looking for a political group that isn't swamped by RUMINT and cage-rattling garbage.

 

[Emperor Tippy]

Rumble is probably the best YouTube replacement out there.

Easy cross posting of your videos to your YouTube account is also nice for content creators and the revenue split is better as well.

If you are a higher end content creator it also offers a much greater degree of control over your content and how it is displayed/distributed.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I had a Facebook but haven't used it since the 2000s. Last year, I tried logging in to check out what my old IRL friends were up to, but I didn't know the password, and Facebook wanted me to send them IRL verification of who I was. Nope.

I've cleansed my twitter of any vaguely political comments. Only took me 30 seconds because I hardly ever talk on Twitter anyway, usually about anime and games. I only follow a handful of people. If they are banned for their political opinions, I'll still use it just to like/upvote fanart.

I've heard mixed reports on Gab and Minds. Some people saying that they have bad features or something. No intention to go there ATM.

I've heard good things about Bitchute's platform, but the problem is the algorithm. It's not good at directing people towards content they might like. I made an account there to subscribe to some content creators I follow on Youtube who opened up backup accounts there.

I heard Trump went to Parler, so I tried signing up, but apparently their website was overloaded or something. I can't find his official account there either.

On a similar topic, someone brought up a worrying observation about Bitcoin: isn't it public who owns what bitcoin? And aren't the transactions public? If so, those Bitcoin/blockchain logs could be used by oppressive regimes like the CCP or the US to track dissidents/add them to their list. Afterall, why use Bitcoin... unless your VISA and Mastercard and Paypal have been shut down, in which case you're a dissident. Or you're trying to give money to a dissident, which therefore makes you a collaborator/co-conspirator and therefore also a dissident. A worrying thought.

 

[Global Warming]

Pleroma seems like the best Twitter replacement out there, since it's a federated system of interlinked servers and therefore a lot more resilient to Google / Apple or AWS fuckery. Gab and Parler don't seem to have learned the lesson that a centralized service is an easy target for deplatforming. With Pleroma, each instance chooses which other instances to federate with (exchanging messages and other media), so you can pick an instance that has a policy you agree with. They're also hosted in dozens of countries around the world, on a variety of self-hosted and managed infra, making it a much more resilient network.

A couple decent Pleroma instances are FSE and KiwiFarms, which peer with basically everyone else. You won't be able to communicate with the handful of people who are on servers that have blocked those two, but those instances are generally boring hugboxes anyways.

 

[Cherico]

I think slowly but surely we are getting more and better alternatives to big tech and with hollywood on fire and the price of doing media falling I think the lefts losing that monopoly too. Its going to be a hard fight but the era of one side getting to control what gets said is coming more and more to and end.

 

[Zachowon]

I hear some people also started using VK, which is Russian eqivalent of facebook, since the limitation of registration only in Russia was removed.

I do not think I would legally be allowed to go there sadly.
Since, anything owned by Russia outside of video games is worrisome to the Army for me.

 

[Global Warming]

On a similar topic, someone brought up a worrying observation about Bitcoin: isn't it public who owns what bitcoin? And aren't the transactions public? If so, those Bitcoin/blockchain logs could be used by oppressive regimes like the CCP or the US to track dissidents/add them to their list. Afterall, why use Bitcoin... unless your VISA and Mastercard and Paypal have been shut down, in which case you're a dissident. Or you're trying to give money to a dissident, which therefore makes you a collaborator/co-conspirator and therefore also a dissident. A worrying thought.

Yeah, bitcoin is inherently flawed in that respect, but there are a number of other cryptocurrencies (eg. Monero) that are looking to fill that gap. Many of those can then be easily converted to bitcoin. It's a work in progress, but thing have come a long way even in the last few years. The hardest gap to bridge is of course being able to either buy services directly in crypto, or to convert it back into fiat. That's where government is going to regulate and hammer anyone who steps out of line.

I think slowly but surely we are getting more and better alternatives to big tech and with hollywood on fire and the price of doing media falling I think the lefts losing that monopoly too. Its going to be a hard fight but the era of one side getting to control what gets said is coming more and more to and end.

I'm tentatively optimistic that Silicon Valley going full mask-off here will finally be the impetus for long-term viable alternative platforms. Voat and Gab were good attempts, but the big social media companies were doing a good job of just slowly ramping up the pressure to squeeze out the most disruptive and undesirable users. That created the problem of those alternate platforms being entirely made up of those users, making them unpalatable to the general population. Now, they've demonstrated that they can ban the POTUS at a whim, and are likely gearing up for a wholesale purge of any right-leaning users to placate the incoming Democratic administration. That exodus should give a big boost in momentum to all alternative platforms, and hopefully the best will rise to the top.

 

[Marnuplee]

Gab and Parler don't seem to have learned the lesson that a centralized service is an easy target for deplatforming.

Parler have been deplatformed by amazon from their server while gab has their own server.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Rumble is probably the best YouTube replacement out there.

Easy cross posting of your videos to your YouTube account is also nice for content creators and the revenue split is better as well.

If you are a higher end content creator it also offers a much greater degree of control over your content and how it is displayed/distributed.

Yeah looks nice.

I mean I only checked it out because Arch Warhammer (who I barely watched anyways) had to migrate there after his Youtube Account got hacked, but the site is pretty easy to navigate and utilize, at least on a desktop/chromebook. Sadly it doesn't have all of those mobile features and support like Godless Youtube does, but I can't act too spoiled now over minor inconveniences. Account setup (verified or unverified) is pretty easy as well and it does have a mobile app still available (FOR NOW) on the major app stores.

40K THE WAR FOR BADAB! Crusade of the Fire Hawks and the Burning of Iblis!

Enough is enough! the retreats end here! The Fire Hawks will bloody the secessionist noses and restore moral!

rumble.com

Glancing over it, mostly it seems to be political content. Dan Bongino, Sebastian Gorka, Charlie Kirk, OANN, Newsmax etc. The Quartering is apparently on there as well.

Also Reuters and Newsy and various local news channels which is unexpected but welcome. Anythings better then having CNN, MSNBC and Washington Post blatherings in the video news feeds.

Also cute animal videos.

Adorable moment leopard cub seen playing with its loving mother

The leopard is one of the most difficult wild animals to find in the African bush. Finding this elusive, solitary big cat in the wild is a truly remarkable experience on its own. Getting to see two le

rumble.com

Sorry Bitchute... this does seem bettererererer...

 

[Whitestrake Pelinal]

Sorry Bitchute... this does seem bettererererer...

A lesson of the current left-tech purges is to never use just one. I must mirror content I make, encourage artists and pundits whom I value to mirror theirs, and never pretend that an internet site is a 'home' that I will always have.

 

[Husky_Khan]

A lesson of the current left-tech purges is to never use just one. I must mirror content I make, encourage artists and pundits whom I value to mirror theirs, and never pretend that an internet site is a 'home' that I will always have.

Yeah I opened a similar thread about BitChute specifically and have an account to view the crap there as well. I hope both of the websites somehow manage to prosper of course, because more is better and that's despite the obvious inconvenience of many accounts and the problems with dispersing niche content but I hope more creators mirror their content on both platforms and especially not just political content.

https://www.the-sietch.com/index.php?threads/bitchute.1443/

I know Arch did the BitChute thing for a while but then stopped... and well... I wonder if he regrets that now. Should be a warning sign for all other sorts of creators getting zoned out of YouTube and other social media platforms. Like with what happened to Brandon Straka's #WalkAway Facebook page. He said he's lost access to thousands of video testimonials. Tragic if he didn't have that saved, much less if he didn't have that hosted on BitChute or Rumble or a friggin Torrent somewhere (or whatever it is the kids use nowadays )

 

[Zachowon]

I like both bitchute and Rumble

 

[Whitestrake Pelinal]

So, things have changed a bit in the last couple weeks...

Voat is gone, shut down by the operator with a suspiciously pervy final message.

Parler is gone, shut down by Amazon, Apple, and Google. They may return with new web hosting, but an app will never be permitted back on Android or iOS devices without submitting to leftist censorship.

Poal has absorbed much of the influx from voat and is now one of the largest free speech forums on the internet. Unsurprisingly, there have been some stutters in service due to the rapid growth, but it usually works.

Aether

getaether.net

Aether is beginning to pick up steam as a P2P reddit-style forum. It is very small right now, likely not much larger than The Sietch, but has seemingly solid tech behind it, and the operators appear committed to their free speech principles... as did many before them, but we can always hope. Aether is notable for being P2P hosted, so unlike sites such as Parler it can be expected to be resilient against deplatforming and debanking. Whether it would survive the unpersoning of its creators, I cannot say.

 

[Cherico]

Big tech is essentally openly breaking the law now.

We really should have handled that 4 years ago.

 

[Whitestrake Pelinal]

Big tech is essentally openly breaking the law now.

We really should have handled that 4 years ago.

There was no 'we' with numbers and consensus to do such a thing. Only now that conservatives are getting pimp-slapped right in the face are they willing to admit that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't such a good idea to do business with left-tech. Only now that the boot crushes their balls, to quote Yuri Bezmenov, do they start to get it. Until the last few days there was always another excuse... 'but I need this app', 'but google just works', 'but my favorite shows', etc.

 

[f1onagher]

What web browser are y'all using? I found out about the Gab-backed one Dissenter recently and it seems to work just as well as Firefox or Chrome.

 

[Erwin_Pommel]

What web browser are y'all using?

Microsoft Edge u--u

Or whatever it is now.