DLive is an American

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

live streaming Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but no ...

service which was founded in 2017. It was purchased by BitTorrent in 2019. Due to the site's lax enforcement of prohibited content guidelines, DLive has become a popular alternative to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...

among

white nationalists White nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a raceHeidi Beirich and Kevin Hicks. "Chapter 7: White nationalism in America". In Perry, Barbara. ''Hate Crimes''. Greenwoo ...

conspiracy theorists A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * * * * The term has a nega ...

neo-Nazis Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...

, and other extremists. The site is also used by

gamer A gamer is a proactive hobbyist who plays interactive games, especially video games, tabletop role-playing games, and skill-based card games, and who plays for usually long periods of time. Some gamers are competitive, meaning they routinely ...

s as an alternative to Twitch. DLive uses a

blockchain A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a ...

for its donation systems. It originally operated on the Steemit blockchain, before switching to the Lino network upon its relaunch in September 2018, and later

TRON ''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American science fiction action-adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer a ...

network after its 2019 purchase by BitTorrent.

Company history

DLive was founded in December 2017 by Charles Wayn and Cole Chen, who studied at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. Initially based on the Steem

, it was relaunched in September 2018 on the Lino Network blockchain. With the launch, DLive billed itself as a streaming site which did not take a cut of streamers' revenue, a policy that lasted until December 2020. Instead, 90.1% of subscription and gift revenues went directly to streamers while the other 9.9% was streamers' daily performance on the site. Right-wing conspiracy theorist

Alex Jones Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American far-right and alt-right radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas, which the Genesis Communications Network broadcas ...

temporarily moved to DLive after being banned from

, but was also banned by DLive for violating its community guidelines in April 2019. By that month, DLive self-reported 3 million monthly active users and 35,000 active streamers. In the same month, YouTuber

PewDiePie Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg ( , ; born 24 October 1989), better known as PewDiePie ( ), is a Swedes, Swedish YouTuber known for his Let's Play videos and comedic formatted videos and shows. Kjellberg's popularity on YouTube and extensive media co ...

signed an exclusive livestreaming deal with DLive, which lasted until his return to YouTube in May 2020. In the two months after the signing, DLive's userbase grew by 67%. By late 2019, DLive was purchased by BitTorrent. BitTorrent was itself owned by cryptocurrency entrepreneur

Justin Sun Justin Sun (Chinese: 孙宇晨; pinyin: Sūn Yǔchén; born July 30, 1990) is a Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur, and business executive. He is the founder of Tron (founded July 2017), a blockchain DAO ecosystem. Sun is the Permanent Represen ...

's TRON Foundation, so DLive switched from the Lino Network to the TRON network. Towards the end of 2019, DLive began attracting users from the

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

because of its lax enforcement of prohibited content guidelines. A

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

told ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' in August 2020 that DLive was "turning a blind eye" to hate speech and misinformation on the platform: "They care more about having good numbers than weeding these people out". Internal emails obtained by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' show that Wayn wanted to suspend some

white supremacists White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...

and

Neo-Nazis Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...

in 2020, but decided not to because it would hamper DLive's growth. Wayn hoped to dilute their presence with growth of non-political video game streamers. In June 2020, amidst the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internati ...

, DLive changed its

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

profile to " All Lives Matter", which ''

'' called a "right-wing rallying cry in response to Black Lives Matter". By August 2020, the most popular programming on DLive included

anti-vaccination Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain abou ...

content,

COVID-19 misinformation False information, including intentional disinformation and conspiracy theories, about the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease has been spread through social media, text messaging ...

, and opposition to racial justice movements. In October 2020,

QAnon QAnon ( , ) is an American political conspiracy theory and political movement. It originated in the American far-right political sphere in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q". ...

streamers joined the platform after being deplatformed from YouTube.

User base and far-right content

DLive viewers can tip content creators with a currency called "lemons". Many of the site's far-right streams are only accessible after opting to see "x-tagged" content. Unlike right-wing media alternatives such as Gab and

Parler Parler () is an American alt-tech social networking service associated with conservatives. Journalists have described Parler as an alt-tech alternative to Twitter, and users include those banned from mainstream social networks or who oppose ...

, DLive's donation and subscription system offers a monetization system, and top streamers make over $100,000. To facilitate donations, the site is integrated with

Streamlabs Streamlabs (formerly ''TwitchAlerts'') is a California-based software company founded in 2014. The company primarily distributes livestreaming software. Streamlabs was acquired by Logitech in 2019. Overview Streamlabs was founded in 2014 as T ...

. In August 2020, eight of DLive's top ten earners according to

Social Blade Social Blade (sometimes spelled SocialBlade) is an American social media analytics website. Social Blade most notably tracks the YouTube platform, but also has analytical information regarding Twitch, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Trovo ...

were far-right extremists or conspiracy theorists. On two dates analyzed by ''Time'', in June and August 2020, far right extremist channels captured 96% of all viewers and 99% of viewers of Top 20 channels.

Megan Squire Megan Squire is a professor of computer science at Elon University. A researcher and Anti-Defamation League fellow with a focus on right-wing political extremism online, her work has been described as operating as an intermediary between non-prof ...

, a professor of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

Elon University Elon University is a private university in Elon, North Carolina. Founded in 1889 as Elon College, Elon is organized into six schools, most of which offer bachelor's degrees and several of which offer master's degrees or professional doctorate d ...

and researcher of far-right

online communities An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, online communities may fe ...

, has described DLive as a gamified service that acts as a significant source of funding for white supremacists and other extremists: "The top earners on the platform – by far – are white nationalist

Nick Fuentes Nicholas Joseph Fuentes (born August 18, 1998) is an American white supremacistMultiple sources: * * * * * political commentator and Online streamer, live streamer. A former YouTuber, his channel was permanently suspended in February 20 ...

and '

alt-right The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...

' entertainer

Owen Benjamin Owen Benjamin Kares Troy-Smith (born May 24, 1980) is an American conspiracy theorist and internet personality. He was a stand-up comedian and actor who had minor roles in mainstream film and television between 2008 and 2015. In the late 2010s, ...

." DLive also hosts former

Identity Evropa Identity Evropa () was an American neo-Nazi and white supremacist organization established in March 2016. It was rebranded as the American Identity Movement in March 2019. In November 2020, the group disbanded. Leaders and members of Identity Ev ...

leader Patrick Casey and Neo-Nazi Matthew Q. Gebert. A former DLive employee, who spoke anonymously to ''

'' magazine, stated that as political channels on the service became increasingly popular in 2019, they devolved into "streams dedicated to white pride and a lot of

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

, entire streams talking about how Jewish people are evil". Joan Donovan, the research director of Harvard's Shorenstein Center, stated in August 2020: "On DLive, the gloves are off, and it's just full white-supremacist content with very few caveats."

Use in U.S. Capitol attack

During the attack at the

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...

on January 6, 2021, at least nine DLive streams were online streaming their involvement in the day's events. Most notable among them was alt-right figure Tim Gionet, under the name "

Baked Alaska Baked Alaska, also known as Bombe Alaska, ''omelette norvégienne, omelette surprise,'' or ''omelette sibérienne'' depending on the country, is a dessert consisting of ice cream and cake topped with browned meringue. The dish is made of ice cre ...

", who earned more than $2,000 from tips that day and received messages on where to go into the building from his DLive chat. A

Proud Boys The Proud Boys is an American far-right, neo-fascist, and exclusively male organization that promotes and engages in political violence in the United States.Far-right: * * Fascist: * * * * * Men only: * * * Political violence: * * * It has ...

associated account called "Murder the Media", a phrase that was written on the door of the US Capitol, also streamed. In response, on January 9, DLive suspended the accounts of Baked Alaska, Murder the Media, and four other accounts that had participated. It also suspended the account of white nationalist

, one of the site's most popular creators and a leader of the " Groyper" movement. The site balances of those accounts were frozen and future donations refunded. One week after the attack, white supremacist and Groyper Patrick Casey was using the site to downplay the significance of the riot while acknowledging that "our days on DLive seem to be numbered." An analysis performed in January 2021 following the attack showed that approximately 95 percent of the views on DLive's streams that day went to far-right streamers, at least nine of which were present at the Capitol. After the storming, Jewish-American magazine ''

The Forward ''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ' ...

'' wrote a piece describing DLive as "A safe haven for Neo-Nazis". On February 9, Representatives

Raja Krishnamoorthi Subramanian Raja Krishnamoorthi ( born July 19, 1973) is an Indian-born American businessman and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2017. The district includes many of Chicago's western and northwestern suburbs, such as Hoff ...

and Jackie Speier sent a letter to DLive calling on the company to explain how it moderates extremist content, specifically requesting information on anonymous funding of bad actors and whether or not the company still intended to tolerate extremists using the platform to advocate for offline violence. DLive has also been used by several channels to promote the discredited and disproven

conspiracy theory. As of March 2021, DLive streams "Patriots' Soapbox", a relatively high-profile QAnon channel.

Company history

User base and far-right content

Use in U.S. Capitol attack

See also

References

Further reading