Odysee is an American

decentralized Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those related to planning and decision-making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group and gi ...

video hosting An online video platform (OVP) enables users to upload, convert, store, and play back video content on the Internet, often via a private server structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally upload video content vi ...

platform, built on the LBRY

blockchain The blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of Record (computer science), records (''blocks'') that are securely linked together via Cryptographic hash function, cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of th ...

. It positions itself as an alternative to mainstream services like

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, but with a focus on

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

and

decentralization Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those related to planning and decision-making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group and gi ...

. The platform enables users to upload, share, and monetize videos through

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership record ...

, while maintaining content persistence through a

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network, forming a peer-to-peer network of Node ...

network.

History

Odysee was founded in 2020 by Julian Chandra. In June 2024, Odysee was acquired by Forward Research. The acquisition took place after Odysee's former parent company LBRY lost a lawsuit from the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

in July 2023.

Technology

Odysee is driven by

, a decentralized protocol that allows

digital content Digital content is any content that exists in the form of digital data. Digital content is stored on digital media or analog storage in specific formats. Forms of digital content include information that is digitally broadcast, streamed, or ...

to be distributed and stored without a central authority. This blockchain network supports a

infrastructure, which allows users to upload and share

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

s. The

metadata Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive ...

of uploaded content is stored on the blockchain, while the videos themselves are hosted across a distributed network of users, referred to as nodes. Arweave is a decentralized data storage network that uses blockchain technology to enable digital storage. Its native AR token pays for storage and incentivizes participants. The Arweave network has been used to archive content in censorship-sensitive regions like Hong Kong and during conflicts such as the Ukraine invasion.

Moderation

Since its launch in September 2020, Odysee has been at the center of several controversies, primarily due to its

content moderation On websites that allow users to create content, content moderation is the process of detecting contributions that are irrelevant, obscene, illegal, harmful, or insulting. The purpose of content moderation is to remove or apply a warning label to ...

policies and

structure, which critics argue have allowed harmful content to flourish. The platform's approach to content moderation, which is significantly less restrictive compared to mainstream platforms like

, has attracted a range of users, including

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

groups, conspiracy theorists, and individuals banned from other platforms. In addition to allegations of facilitating

hate speech Hate speech is a term with varied meaning and has no single, consistent definition. It is defined by the ''Cambridge Dictionary'' as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as ...

, Odysee has also been criticized for hosting

disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...

, particularly around topics such as the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

vaccines A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified. A vaccine typically contains an ag ...

, and

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

issues. The platform's decentralized nature makes it difficult for content to be effectively moderated or removed, allowing

misinformation Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. Misinformation and disinformation are not interchangeable terms: misinformation can exist with or without specific malicious intent, whereas disinformation is distinct in that the information ...

and disinformation to spread without significant resistance. This has raised concerns about the proliferation of conspiracy theories related to

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

, and other widely debunked claims. Odysee has faced geo-blocking restrictions in regions such as the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, where governments have raised concerns about content deemed harmful or disinformation.

References

{{Reflist American companies established in 2020 Internet properties established in 2020 2024 mergers and acquisitions Social media Video hosting Video search engine Companies based in Las Vegas Blockchains Freedom of speech in the United States Cryptocurrency in the United States Free and open-source software Social networking services

History

Technology

Moderation

See also

References