DLive

DLive is an American video live streaming service which was founded in 2017. It was purchased by the BitTorrent company in 2019. Due to the site's lax enforcement of prohibited content guidelines, DLive become a popular alternative to YouTube and Twitch among white nationalists, conspiracy theorists, Neo Nazis, and other extremists.[1][2][3][4]

DLive
Type of site
Live streaming
FoundedDecember 2017 (2017-12)
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)Charles Wayn and Cole Chen
IndustryInternet
ParentBitTorrent
URLdlive.tv
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedSeptember 2018 (2018-09) (relaunch)

DLive uses blockchain for its servers and donation systems. It originally operated on the Steem blockchain, before switching to the Lino network upon its relaunch in September 2018, and later TRON network after its 2019 purchase by BitTorrent.

History

DLive was founded in December 2017 by Charles Wayn and Cole Chen, who studied at the University of California, Berkeley.[4][5] Initially based on the Steem blockchain, it was relaunched in September 2018 on the Lino Network blockchain.[6][7] 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.[4] Instead, 90.1% of subscription and gift revenues went directly to streamers while the other 9.9% was streamers' daily performance on the site.[5]

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones temporarily moved to DLive after being banned from YouTube, but was also banned by DLive for violating its community guidelines in April 2019.[1] By that month, Dlive self-reported 3 million monthly active users and 35,000 active streamers.[5] In the same month, YouTube star PewDiePie signed an exclusive livestreaming deal with DLive, which lasted until his return to YouTube in May 2020.[5][8] In the two months after the signing, DLive's userbase grew by 67%.[3]

By late 2019, DLive was purchased by BitTorrent. Because BitTorrent was itself owned by cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun's TRON Foundation, the purchase meant the DLive transitioned from the Lino Network to the TRON network.[4][9] At the time, DLive began attracting users from the far-right because of its lax enforcement of prohibited speech. Internal emails obtained by The New York Times show that Wayn wanted to suspend some white supremacists and Neo-Nazis 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.[4] In June 2020, amidst the George Floyd protests, DLive changed its Twitter profile to "All Lives Matter", a right-wing slogan used to oppose the Black Lives Matter movement. By August 2020, the most popular programming on DLive included anti-vaccination content, COVID-19 misinformation, and opposition to racial justice movements.[3] In October 2020, QAnon streamers joined the platform after being deplatformed from YouTube.[4]

During the storming of the United States Capitol 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", who earned more than $2000 from tips that day and received messages on where to go into the building from his DLive chat. A Proud Boys associated account called "Murder the Media", a phrase that was carved on the door of the US Capitol, also streamed.[4] 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 Nick Fuentes, one of the site's most popular creators. The site balances of those accounts were frozen and future donations refunded.[10][11][12]

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.[4]

Unlike right-wing media alternatives such as Gab (social network) and Parler, DLive's donation and subscription system offers a monetization system, and top streamers make over $100,000.[4] In August 2020, eight of DLive's top ten earners according to Social Blade are 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.[3] Megan Squire, a professor of computer science at Elon University and researcher of far-right online communities, 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 and 'alt-right' entertainer Owen Benjamin."[2] DLive also hosts former Identity Evropa leader Patrick Casey and Neo-Nazi Matthew Q. Gebert.[1][13]

A former DLive employee, who spoke anonymously to Time 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, entire streams talking about how Jewish people are evil".[3] 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."[3]

An analysis performed in January 2021 following the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol 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.[4] After the storming, Jewish-American magazine The Forward wrote a piece describing DLive as "A safe haven for Neo-Nazis".[13]

See also

References
  1. Cohen, Libby (1 January 2020). "White nationalists are moving from YouTube to DLive". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 1 July 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  2. Gais, Hannah; Edison Hayden, Michael (17 November 2020). "Extremists Are Cashing in on a Youth-Targeted Gaming Website". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  3. Bergengruen, Vera (20 August 2020). "How Far-Right Personalities and Conspiracy Theorists Are Cashing in on the Pandemic Online". Time (magazine). Archived from the original on 17 November 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  4. Browning, Kellen; Lorenz, Taylor (8 January 2021). "Pro-Trump Mob Livestreamed Its Rampage, and Made Money Doing It". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  5. Spangler, Todd (9 April 2019). "PewDiePie Picks DLive as Exclusive Live-Streaming Platform, Will Donate Up to $50,000 to Other Creators (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on 9 April 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  6. "DLive is joining the Lino blockchain, moving away from Steem". DLive. 21 September 2018. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  7. Takahashi, Dean (20 June 2018). "DLive launches blockchain-based livestreaming platform on Android". Venture Beat. Archived from the original on 20 June 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  8. Stephen, Bijan (4 May 2020). "PewDiePie signs exclusive live-streaming deal with YouTube". The Verge. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  9. Jakobson, Leo (31 December 2019). "Justin Sun's BitTorrent buys DLive streaming platform". Modern Consensus. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  10. "Building a Safe and Welcoming Community". DLive. 9 January 2021. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  11. Petrizzo, Zachary (9 January 2021). "Nick Fuentes, 'Baked Alaska' banned from DLive following Capitol riots". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  12. Giuliani, David (21 January 2021). "LTHS Grad Floats Idea Of Killing Lawmakers". Patch.com. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  13. Boigon, Molly (7 January 2021). "Banned from YouTube? Welcome to DLive, a safe haven for America's neo-Nazis". The Forward. Archived from the original on 8 January 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2021.

Further reading
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