Brief Explanation

I should probably explain a little about what Odysee and PeerTube actually are and why I post there. The short answer is because YouTube has a bunch of problems, but that doesn’t explain why I post there specifically as supposed to other platforms.

Odysee and PeerTube are both decentralised “video-sharing platforms” (it’s a bit more complicated than that), but the way they are decentralised is different. Odysee is a video-sharing platform which uses the LBRY network. PeerTube on the other hand is a self-hosted ActivityHub video streaming platform.

That’s what separates them from the “free speech” platforms like Rumble and BitChute. The latter of which ceased operation in my country due to the Online Safety Act.

Problems with YouTube

Censorship and trigger words

There are certain topics that YouTube doesn’t fair well with (e.g., war, genocide, mental health, eating disorders). Understandably, these are serious topics that are not pleasant to talk about, but it’s difficult to talk about them seriously when creators are forced to self-censor, for instance saying “self-delete” instead of suicide. One of my videos was flagged because it had the word “hacker” in the title, even though it did not endorse unethical hacking.

I understand sites like YouTube have to implement rules for both legal and moral reasons, but it can be very unclear what is and isn’t allowed on the site, and YouTube doesn’t treat all creators fairly. Educational content discussing the dark web or torrents have been flagged as “harmful or dangerous”, yet actual disturbing content has found its way onto the YouTube Kids app.

YouTube has a big problem with false copyright claims. Sometimes, the claims are legit (even if the motive is controversial), other times the copyright system is used against someone whose content falls under fair use.

When the latter occurs, it’s typically to censor criticism. One example involves an animation YouTuber who tried to take down a commentary YouTuber’s channel. Whether you agree with the commentary channel’s criticism or not, his content fell under fair use.

AI slop

Much of YouTube is dominated by what I’d call slop farms. This is content which isn’t produced by people (at least, not in any meaningful way) to farm attention. It’s hard to describe what AI slop is, but you’ll know it when you see it.

Think of something like “cat saves baby from grizzly bear” or “NASA has found a planet that’s better for life than Earth”.

Ads

I’m not against advertising in general, but not only have multiple unskippable ads in a row become the norm, the content of many ads are questionable, and many ads are just outright scams. I’ve seen a lot of AI Tai Chi ads.

For that reason, I do not blame people for using browser extensions like uBlock Origin or SponsorBlock.

Other reasons

Reduced Dependence

You’ve probably heard the phrase “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. It’s a general heuristic I live by, I try to avoid relying solely on one service.

Realistically, I think the odds of my channel being taken down are very low, but if it did for whatever reason, at least people would still be able to watch my content.

Why not some normie platform?

There are no real mainstream alternatives to YouTube. When was the last time you used Dailymotion? Did you know that was even a thing? (Dailymotion is mostly just news, so it’s boring af)

Obviously, there’s TikTok for short form content and Twitch/Kick for live streaming, but they’re even worse than YouTube.

I think Odysee/LBRY is the closest thing to a real YouTube alternative, especially since a lot of YouTubers already post there.

Are you going to stop posting to YouTube?

No. Despite YouTube’s problems, the overwhelming majority of my audience uses it. As of 13th February 2026, GNULectures has 16,400 subscribers on YouTube versus 290 followers on Odysee and 2 subscribers on PeerTube (one of them is myself lol).

Out of the three, YouTube is the only one that is financially profitable for me. I don’t earn any money from Odysee and PeerTube actually costs me money because I pay for the server. I do YouTube