White Terror and Anti-Vax Content Found on BitChute

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TLDR

• Open Measures, an open source social intelligence platform, is now indexing the platform BitChute, an alt-tech video platform with light moderation policies allowing posts from white supremacists and accounts posting public health misinformation and antisemitic conspiracy theories.

• To highlight available BitChute collections, our researchers analyzed conversations related to Canadian trucker convoys in February 2022 for greater insights into white terror and anti-vax content on the platform as a case study.

• Our research revealed BitChute's involvement in legal proceedings in the United Kingdom (UK), related to allegations of harboring a Nazi terror network on its platform. BitChute continues to host content that may pose serious safety risks and lead to mass deaths, despite external legal and ethical pressures for more content moderation. 

• Similarly, we found that BitChute hosts many of Goyim TV's videos on its platform, a neo-Nazi website run by Jon Eugene Minadeo II, a founder and member of white terror network the Goyim Defense League (GDL).

What is BitChute?

BitChute, a UK-based company, is a “free speech” alternative to YouTube that has grown into a substantial platform for right-wing content, particularly from US and UK creators (based on analysis of popular accounts detailed below). The platform grew rapidly through COVID-19 conspiracy posters in 2020, especially from the enormous popularity of Plandemic, a documentary promoting conspiracy theories about the pandemic that was banned from all major platforms.

Founded by Ray Vahey in 2017, Bitchute has another director, Richard Jones, who lives in Thailand (according to Companies House records); Vahey resides in the UK. Bitchute's site includes the stated goal of creating a home for video content banned or restricted on mainstream video-sharing social media platforms:

We are an independent platform making a stand against excessive Internet censorship because we believe it is the right thing to do.

While BitChute claims its platform uses peer-to-peer technology, reporting from other media outlets have cast doubt on these claims.¹

Backlash and Retaliation

Past researchers have highlighted the prevalence and popularity of pro-Trump and conservative news content on the platform, as well as QAnon, conspiracy theory, and white nationalist content.² ³ ⁴ (Open Measures data confirms that all top 10 creators on the platform produce such content). Notably, BitChute's official Twitter account has also promoted conspiracy theories involving antisemitic tropes, QAnon, and COVID-19 misinformation.⁵

Amid the growing extremist content on BitChute, activists put pressure on other tech companies cooperating with the platform, resulting in some limited actions against it. Since 2019, PayPal removed BitChute's ability to integrate as a result of hate speech on the platform; payment services Patreon, Stripe, and IndieGogo made similar restrictions. Despite PayPal’s integration restrictions, however, BitChute failed to remove the UI elements allowing creators to accept payments. 

Caption: BitChute conspiracy channel containing a seemingly broken built-in PayPal button.

BitChute has a “Tip or Pledge” feature that merely consists of a button that hyperlinks out to other sites, typically SubscribeStar (a fundraising platform). The “Tip or Pledge” feature is only used by two of the top ten most-subscribed creators.

OFCOM in the UK

BitChute is incorporated in the UK, which means they are susceptible to UK laws and have become the test case for the new British Internet regulatory body called the Office of Communications (OFCOM). OFCOM exists to support regulation requiring video service providers to “take appropriate measures to protect consumers who engage with these services from the risk of viewing harmful content.”

OFCOM became more focused on regulating harmful content after BitChute was repeatedly reported for violations including Holocaust denial content. Much of this pressure and scrutiny drew from an initial report by UK-based organization Hope Not Hate, claiming that BitChute was knowingly hosting illegal and hateful content and calling upon regulatory bodies, law enforcement, social media platforms, and service providers to create a united front against it. Among the videos cited in the report were those promoting the banned terrorist organization National Action, alongside content promoting actions by the Islamic State. 

BitChute and the “Goyim Defense League”

Another revelation concerns Goyim TV, a content delivery network with a focus on neo-Nazi content and aesthetics which uses BitChute as its media host. First discovered by an Open Measures community member, this finding can also be confirmed by right-clicking a video on goyimtv.tv, viewing its source, and doing a command search for "bitchute." Goyim TV's site appears to be a fork of BitChute, though BitChute uses closed-source code.

While it is beyond the scope of this research to determine what percentage of Goyim TV's videos BitChute hosts, it is worth noting that Goyim TV also advertises on Telegram (which could be further analyzed through Open Measures' platform).

Caption: The source code of Goyim TV, which reveals its connections to BitChute's hosting services.

Goyim TV is run by Jon Eugene Minadeo II, a founder and member of white terror network the Goyim Defense League (GDL). Numerous members of the GDL have been arrested for hate-related crimes including an anti-LGBTQ-motivated attack, an arson attack on a synagogue, and disobeying police orders during a traffic stop (in the latter, the driver was arrested while driving a swastika-covered rental van after protesting a Holocaust education center).

There are multiple ways to verify GDL's connections to Goyim TV, such as through the site's store (which also sells T-shirts with slogans that encourage violence against LGBTQ communities) or through the site's now-defunct (but archived) donation page (see below). The GDL website and store also use the web services Storefront and WooCommerce. As corroborated against prior investigative work, the accounts and addresses identified belong to Jon Minadeo II (elsewhere, the site also links to his Twitter as well as a somewhat active Gab account).

Caption: A variety of payment options linked to Jon Minadeo II (accounts and addresses redacted).

By examining BitChute's donate page and another site tying Minadeo, Goyim TV, and BitChute together, our researchers found a variety of payment processors were implicated in providing these services, such as Zelle and Cash App. The donate page also includes a request that users send Amazon gift cards directly to a specific email address, as well as donations to various crypto wallets. (Our researchers could only investigate the Monero address, which had received only small donations). 

Caption: A "channel restricted" screenshot of a BitChute channel associated with Jon Minadeo II and accessed from a UK IP address.

As BitChute already blocked the UK IP addresses of the accounts and channels in the redacted image above (linked to Jon Minadeo II), it is unclear why the platform has not also blocked Goyim TV's website and affiliated channels, which are still visible.

The Goyim TV website appears to have an obscure and likely broken integration with PayPal (see below), as well as a way to pay to “promote” content.

Caption: A screenshot of Goyim TV's account settings and menus, allowing access to payments via PayPal.

It is unclear if Goyim TV actually makes money or has functional services beyond its UI code and redirected sales to their online store. Regardless, this research shows the alarming possibility that other violent organizations could easily create their own BitChute forks and integrate payment processors to become self-sustaining.

Interestingly, BitChute's website includes a Prohibited Entities List, banning only three specific organizations (all fascist in nature): Nordic Resistance Movement, Order of 9 Angles, and Golden Dawn. However, it is also easy to find examples of these three organizations on the site.

By failing to IP block Goyim TV or send the company a cease and desist letter, its content (and the content of other neo-Nazi video channels) has been able spread and gain popularity on BitChute relatively unhindered. Further, researchers who have studied and critiqued BitChute, such as Megan Squire, have been the target of harassment campaigns carried out on BitChute through videos featuring neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.

Case Study Overview: Anti-Vax Mandate and Trucker Convoys

Our BitChute streams are broken into two different indices, one for video (including title, channel, upvotes, etc.) and one for comments on video — here is an example JSON of comment data and here is an example JSON of video data, both showing all the fields currently available.

Examining high-level trends in our data, we can see that of the 10 most upvoted comments on BitChute, the vast majority include anti-vax sentiments, specifically including claims that the vaccine is a bio-weapon. Among these is an antisemitic conspiracy post stating, “Be a good Goy and take the vaccine,” implying a Jewish conspiracy to eradicate non-Jews. Another of these comments includes excited comments about executing a politician.

Caption: Open Measures search for the BitChute comment “Be a good Goy and take the vaccine.” (Note: In the Search tool, the word “goy” alone yields a wide array of results, as it is a known antisemitic dogwhistle.)

A similar trend was found among subscriber counts, as among the most-subscribed channels were accounts spreading conspiracy theories involving antisemitic and racist content such as Infowars and David Icke, each of which have over 100,000 subscribers.

While researchers can use Open Measures' Public API to find many examples of neo-Nazi and GDL specific comments and videos, our case study focuses specifically on the current trucker convoys and mass demonstrations against COVID-19 public health measures.

In the last two weeks alone, there have been 3,173 videos on BitChute containing the word “convoy” in the title (the most liked among these depicts a fight between protestors and counter-protestors). Among the most popular channels discussing the convoys are Tim Pool, as well as other users with alt-right dogwhistles (such as “red-pill”) in their handles.

Users can recreate many of these searches using our free, public tools — searching "convoy" in our Timeline tool will return how many videos with "convoy" in the title were posted during a certain timeframe (between January 26-28, in the image below).

Caption: Graph showing abrupt surges in videos containing the word "convoy" in the title on BitChute.

Additionally, researchers can see which users are posting the most videos containing "convoy" in the title by using the Activity tool:

Caption: Graph showing the accounts posting the most videos about the convoy on BitChute (with names redacted).

As there are likely many more insights to be found in this data (accessible via Open Measures' API), we encourage other researchers to pursue additional leads using their own expertise.

Conclusion

Though BitChute's growing influence is substantial and the platform currently appears to be favored by neo-Nazi organizations and conspiracy theorists, its reach is still relatively limited. Regardless, the extremist content on BitChute — and the platform's seeming unwillingness to make even modest efforts to control it — may pose significant threats to online discourse in the future.

As the UK lawsuit proves, BitChute is aware of the harmful content on their platform and has thus far limited its actions against it (primarily in areas where the business would otherwise face legal risks as a result of local laws). Additionally, BitChute’s support of anti-vax conspiracy content could potentially influence further outbreaks of otherwise vaccine-repressed illness.

Taking these risks and others into account, Open Measures will continue to monitor the platform for emerging trends, highlighting potential dangers for other researchers. For more details on our methodology or the details of this case study, contact us at info@openmeasures.io.