Alt-tech is a group of websites, social media platforms, and Internet service providers that position themselves as alternatives to more mainstream offerings. They often have less stringent content moderation policies, and have become popular among the alt-right, far-right, and others who espouse extreme and fringe viewpoints. These groups have recently expanded to include many conservatives who have been banned or deplatformed from the more mainstream social media platforms.[1][2][3][4] Many alt-tech platforms position themselves as protectors of free speech and individual liberty, often as covers for their far-right userbases and antisemitism.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
History
Alt-tech social media platforms experienced an increase in popularity in the late 2010s into 2020. This was in part due to the deplatforming, shadow-banning, and content moderation by mainstream platforms, sometimes described pejoratively as "Big Tech", of some prominent people and organizations. Another contributing factor was the perception among some among the political right that these technology companies were censoring their views.[4][11]
Following the aftermath of the August 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally, social media giants such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter were criticized for failing to adhere to their own terms of service, and reacted by "no-platforming" (refusing services to) white supremacists.[12]
Hope Not Hate researcher Joe Mulhall identified the deplatforming of Britain First in 2018 and Tommy Robinson in 2019 as two major events that spurred British social media users to join alt-tech platforms.[2][13][14]
Platforms
Some websites and platforms that have been described as alt-tech include:
Internet service providers who have been known to provide services to such websites, sometimes after more widely-used providers have refused, have also been described as a part of the alt-tech grouping, such as the domain registrar and web host Epik.[5]
Deen Freelon and colleagues publishing in Science wrote that some alt-tech platforms are specifically dedicated to serving right-wing communities, and named 4chan, 8chan, Parler, Gab, and BitChute as examples of such platforms. They noted that others are "more ideologically neutral", such as Discord and Telegram.[11] Researchers have also found that alt-tech platforms used by far-right extremists can also be utilized for mobilization and recruitment purposes, making them more dangerous than just spreading extreme viewpoints.[19]