Tuesday, April 10, 2018

YouTube and Facebook Are Losing Creators to Blockchain-Powered Rivals - Bloomberg

Tbd if Brad Parscale is looking into this type of channel yet...

"While YouTube has had to start taking a tougher line on censoring offensive videos that advertisers don’t want to be associated with, a growing swath of creators have fled to sites such as DTube to avoid the constraints. Like other upstart sites, DTube runs on the blockchain network Steem, and users can pay creators and commenters in digital tokens. That’s another point of distinction with YouTube, as well as with Facebook and Twitter. All three advertising-driven sites are phasing out ads for cryptocurrencies, shielding themselves from potential legal liability if the ads are scams or the digital coins are eventually regulated as securities. Video creators with an interest in cryptocurrency say that’s also a factor driving them away from the big names. In the wake of Facebook’s data scandal, privacy is a third. YouTube didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story; Facebook referred to previous statements that the company is working to repair its reputation but hasn’t seen a significant drop in users.

The less centralized platforms keep more power—and potentially, privacy—in the hands of creators and users, says Ned Scott, who runs the Steem-based social network Steemit. In lieu of ads or selling user data, sites such as Scott’s rely on user growth to make their digital tokens ever more valuable. “The whole experience is more transparent,” he says. “There won’t be many single authorities dictating how social media operates.” Two-year-old Steemit has about a million accounts and added some 120,000 last month, according to Scott. Rival LBRY has about 600,000 registered users."
YouTube and Facebook Are Losing Creators to Blockchain-Powered Rivals - Bloomberg

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