New breed of video sites thrive on misinformation and hate

BitChute has boomed as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook tighten rules to combat misinformation and hate speech. — Photo by ROBIN WORRALL on Unsplash

A day after a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York last May, the video-sharing website BitChute was amplifying a far-right conspiracy theory that the massacre was a so-called false flag operation, meant to discredit gun-loving Americans.

Three of the top 15 videos on the site that day blamed US federal agents instead of the true culprit: a white-supremacist teenager who had vowed to "kill as many blacks as possible” before shooting 13 people, killing 10. Other popular videos uploaded by BitChute users falsely claimed Covid-19 vaccines caused cancers that "literally eat you” and spread the debunked claim that Microsoft founder Bill Gates caused a global baby-formula shortage.