Content creators will be greeted with an error message when they attempt to share their BitChute videos on Twitter.
It seems like Twitter is cracking down free speech; blocks video sharing website BitChute. Multiple content creators are reporting that they are seeing “we can’t complete this request because this links has been identified by Twitter or our partners as harmful” errors when linking to the site.
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BitChute, to many, is the only alternative to YouTube. It is the longest lasting direct competitor to Google’s video sharing platform and, despite lacking many of the features and functionality of YouTube, many prefer it because it is a free speech platform.
Although the platform is free to the general public and is focused on freedom of speech, critics have often labelled the site “a far-right extremist tool.”
Even Googling the free speech video sharing company will yield slanderous results.
Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO, says the company has no political bias and doesn’t censor but block or blacklists BitChute for being “harmful”.
“BitChute is a video hosting service known for accommodating far-right individuals and conspiracy theorists,” the Wikipedia page for the service reads.
The company’s actual mission statement reads: “BitChute aims to put creators first and provide them with a service that they can use to flourish and express their ideas freely.”
The site does accommodate for some radical ideologies both from the left and right, but after the recent YouTube purge of right-wing accounts, a lot of them had no choice but to use BitChute.
One of the platforms biggest creators is libertarian commentator Tarl “StyxenHammer666” Warwick. He uploads exclusive content to BitChute which has helped the platform grow.
Independent investigative American journalist, Tim Pool, was the first to discover that Twitter had blocked the site by attempting to share one of StyxenHammer666’s videos.
Twitter illegally blocks or blacklists free speech video sharing site BitChute for being “harmful”.
“Twitter seems to have blocked Bitchute. I tried a couple links, they did not work,” Tim Pool tweeted at Tarl Warwick.
Warwick confirmed that the free speech video sharing site had been blocked by Twitter and said that people need to bring awareness to this. BitChute is a private company and therefore blocking or blacklisting the site would be considered anti-competitive behaviour, which is illegal.
Anti-competitive behaviour is where a business substantially restricts competitor in a particular market. It is against the law to participate in certain business practices that limit or prevent competition.
We’ve reached out to BitChute for a comment regarding the situation.