this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2024
804 points (92.8% liked)

Technology

60102 readers
2584 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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"

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] -4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

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.