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What is BitChute? Characterizing the "Free Speech" Alternative to YouTube

Milo Trujillo, Maurício Gruppi, Cody Buntain, Benjamin D. Horne

TL;DR

This paper provides the first large-scale characterization of BitChute, a 2017 video-hosting platform positioned as a censorship-free YouTube alternative. Using a mixed-methods analysis of 441K videos, 854K comments, and 38K commenters collected in 2019, the study finds that engagement is highly skewed toward a small set of politically-oriented channels, many of which promote conspiracies or hate speech. Both video content and comments exhibit elevated hate speech, with anti-Semitic language being particularly prevalent, and the platform hosts material including neo-Nazi recruitment and QAnon content. BitChute also shows substantial cross-linking to YouTube and other social platforms, with many top creators maintaining presences on mainstream sites despite bans, suggesting complex migration dynamics and potential pathways for radicalization. The work establishes a dataset and analytical framework for future research on fringe, low-moderation ecosystems and informs discussions on information integrity and platform governance.'

Abstract

In this paper, we characterize the content and discourse on BitChute, a social video-hosting platform. Launched in 2017 as an alternative to YouTube, BitChute joins an ecosystem of alternative, low content moderation platforms, including Gab, Voat, Minds, and 4chan. Uniquely, BitChute is the first of these alternative platforms to focus on video content and is growing in popularity. Our analysis reveals several key characteristics of the platform. We find that only a handful of channels receive any engagement, and almost all of those channels contain conspiracies or hate speech. This high rate of hate speech on the platform as a whole, much of which is anti-Semitic, is particularly concerning. Our results suggest that BitChute has a higher rate of hate speech than Gab but less than 4chan. Lastly, we find that while some BitChute content producers have been banned from other platforms, many maintain profiles on mainstream social media platforms, particularly YouTube. This paper contributes a first look at the content and discourse on BitChute and provides a building block for future research on low content moderation platforms.

What is BitChute? Characterizing the "Free Speech" Alternative to YouTube

TL;DR

This paper provides the first large-scale characterization of BitChute, a 2017 video-hosting platform positioned as a censorship-free YouTube alternative. Using a mixed-methods analysis of 441K videos, 854K comments, and 38K commenters collected in 2019, the study finds that engagement is highly skewed toward a small set of politically-oriented channels, many of which promote conspiracies or hate speech. Both video content and comments exhibit elevated hate speech, with anti-Semitic language being particularly prevalent, and the platform hosts material including neo-Nazi recruitment and QAnon content. BitChute also shows substantial cross-linking to YouTube and other social platforms, with many top creators maintaining presences on mainstream sites despite bans, suggesting complex migration dynamics and potential pathways for radicalization. The work establishes a dataset and analytical framework for future research on fringe, low-moderation ecosystems and informs discussions on information integrity and platform governance.'

Abstract

In this paper, we characterize the content and discourse on BitChute, a social video-hosting platform. Launched in 2017 as an alternative to YouTube, BitChute joins an ecosystem of alternative, low content moderation platforms, including Gab, Voat, Minds, and 4chan. Uniquely, BitChute is the first of these alternative platforms to focus on video content and is growing in popularity. Our analysis reveals several key characteristics of the platform. We find that only a handful of channels receive any engagement, and almost all of those channels contain conspiracies or hate speech. This high rate of hate speech on the platform as a whole, much of which is anti-Semitic, is particularly concerning. Our results suggest that BitChute has a higher rate of hate speech than Gab but less than 4chan. Lastly, we find that while some BitChute content producers have been banned from other platforms, many maintain profiles on mainstream social media platforms, particularly YouTube. This paper contributes a first look at the content and discourse on BitChute and provides a building block for future research on low content moderation platforms.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 18 sections, 3 figures, 7 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Data
  4. BitChute
  5. Activity and Growth
  6. Content and Engagement
  7. Topics and Categories of Videos
  8. Top Viewed Videos
  9. Top Viewed and Commented Channels
  10. Channel Audience Overlap
  11. Discussions and Discourse
  12. Topics in Comments
  13. Hate Speech in Comments
  14. Most Frequent Phrases in Comments
  15. Connections to the Outside
  16. ...and 3 more sections

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Top row: distribution of uploads and comments on (a) average per hour of day; (b) average per hour of week where hour 0 is 12 AM on Monday; times are in UTC. Bottom row: (c) observed distributions of video views and comments; (d) Channel views and comments.
  • Figure 2: Google Trends interest over time, where the mean is shifted to 0 for comparison.
  • Figure 3: The layout is created using Allegro Edge-Repulsive Clustering in Cytoscape cytoscape