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Odysee, a decentralised YouTube alternative focused on free speech, is officially ending the serving of ads on the platform, starting today. The post:

"Dear friends of Odysee, Starting today, we’re removing all ads. We don’t need ads to make money as a platform and we are confident in the development of our own new monetisation programs that will help creators earn a living and at the same time keep Odysee alive. Ultimately, sacrificing the overall user experience to make a few bucks isn’t worth it to us and nor is it even sustainable for a platform that wishes to make something truly open and creatively free.

As we take this decision, one thing is certain to us, media platforms (even ones that market themselves as ‘free-speech’) typically devolve into advertising companies and end up becoming beholden to their paymasters. It’s been that way for centuries and is never going to change.

As we see YouTube become more aggressive with their ad deployment and ‘Free Speech’ platforms try to build their own ad businesses it’s apparent to us that we’re building a model for Odysee that will keep it sustainable not only financially, but in its ability to provide an incorruptible user experience.

Our approach may be considered niche or unconventional, that’s fine by us. Odysee will be used by the world on terms that are agreeable to its users, and we know our users don’t like ads.

Best, Founder & Creator, Chief Executive Officer. Julian Chandra"

  • DreitonLullaby@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
    1447·
    3 months ago

    Are you seriously telling me that you think videos on YouTube and other mainstream platforms aren’t being censored? People need to stop calling it a “right” platform. People of all political ideologies are on the platform, you are just picking out the stuff you don’t like; the platform isn’t even political or meant for that purpose; it’s meant for all forms of content creation.

    Why do you think they have the categories in their sidebar, "Pop Culture; Artists; Education; Lifestyle; Spooky; Gaming; Tech; Comedy; Music; Sports; Universe; Finance 2.0; Spirituality; News & Politics; Wild West – in that order… Notice Politics is second last?

    • SteveFromMySpace@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      291·
      3 months ago

      I didn’t call it anything, I’m asking. I never said YouTube was a free speech platform. In fact I didn’t say anything about YouTube.

      Please read what I wrote again. “Free speech” is a very loaded term now online so I was seeking clarification on what “free speech” means to them. It was a genuine question that is warranted when browsing online in 2024.

      • DreitonLullaby@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        611·
        3 months ago

        Sorry… I apologise for the misunderstanding and mini-rant.

        You appeared to me to be asking a rhetorical question in a sarcastic manner and implying that they aren’t really committed to free speech, and the reason I was frustrated was because I’m quite sick of this platform being labelled as right/far-right when it isn’t. YouTube was just an example one mainstream platform that censors content.

        If you’d like to see an example of how committed they are to free speech, I can’t really easily provide a direct source to a question that broad, but I do recommend taking a look at some of LBRY’s earliest posts on Odysee which you’ll find will highlight some of their original goals and vision (LBRY is the protocol Odysee used to use, and Odysee was created by the same team as LBRY). Otherwise, maybe just take a look around the platform, and try to see what kind of opinion or political-related content is on the platform that you don’t tend to see on others which have greater censorship.

        Edit: Accidentally commented early, so had to edit it to finish typing. Edit 2: Clarified info about who LBRY is.

        • SteveFromMySpace@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          6·
          3 months ago

          I’ll be mindful of my wording in the future. I want to reiterate that this was a genuine question.

          I do think if a lot of people are telling you the site is right wing then maybe you should take a broader look around. You don’t have to be participating in that garbage for it to be occurring.

          • DreitonLullaby@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
            59·
            3 months ago

            Well I know there’s a lot of right-wing content on there, but I also know there’s a lot of other content there, too. So I don’t think it’s okay when people call it a “right-wing” platform, just because it appears to have more of it on there compared to other platforms.

            • PerogiBoi@lemmy.caEnglish
              93·
              3 months ago

              The creators of the site allow Nazi content and say that doesn’t break their terms of service. On every other site, Nazism and promoting that ideology is not allowed.

              This is what you are arguing for. A site that differentiates itself from other video hosting platforms by giving Nazis a safe space.

              • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
                44·
                3 months ago

                While we are at it, lets cancel the postal service since they allow Nazi’s to send newsletters.

                • PerogiBoi@lemmy.caEnglish
                  4·
                  3 months ago

                  Not even a relevant comparison but I wont waste my time arguing with extremists.

                • DreitonLullaby@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
                  42·
                  3 months ago

                  Pretty much. Lets also kick all the Nazi’s outta the planet while we’re at it. Then will people see free speech as a good thing?

                  Oh wait, no they won’t, because they don’t agree with some rando on the other side of the planet who’s saying that chemicals in the water turn the frogs gay. Let’s not converse with them and determine whether its true or not; lets just exclude them from everything in society for saying something I disagree with and keep listening only to the voices echoing around us.

                  I hope people truly think about what I’m trying to point out.

            • IdleSheep@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
              42·
              3 months ago

              Why is it not okay to call it what it is? If you openly allow nazis into your site, you have a nazi site. I’m sorry but there’s just no way around it.

              Either you nip that garbage in the bud or your site is overrun by far right nut jobs, which is what happened with odysee.

              Of course nobody wants to use the site. Why would they?

              It’s the nazi bar problem. You allow one nazi to enter your bar, then that nazi brings his nazi friends, and before you notice it you have a nazi bar and no one wants to visit.

              Odysee doesn’t “appear” to have more right wing content, it objectively does. The majority of people who migrate to it are wackos who got banned in other places for their extremist views.

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.eeEnglish
      41·
      3 months ago

      Are you seriously telling me that you think videos on YouTube and other mainstream platforms aren’t being censored?

      No, they never said anything like that. Read the comment you’re responding to again.

    • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.mlEnglish
      31·
      3 months ago

      Can you recommend me more than a few hardcore leftist content creators exclusively releasing content on Odyssee?