Alt-tech websites were first described in the 2010s. They became popular leading up to the early 2020s due to
deplatforming, banning (including
shadow banning), and other restrictions imposed on extremists by
Big Tech companies. Some
right-wing groups claim that these companies censor their views.[1][6] After the
Unite the Right rally in August 2017, technology companies such as
Google,
Facebook, and
Twitter were criticized for deplatforming
white supremacists.[14]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 alternative platforms.[4][15][16] Ethan Zuckerman and Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci further referenced the August 2018 deplatforming of conspiracy theorist
Alex Jones as a pivotal moment.[17]
In October 2018, alt-tech platform
Gab received extensive public scrutiny following the
Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, after it was found that the sole suspect of the attack, Robert Gregory Bowers, had posted a message on Gab indicating an immediate intent to cause harm before the shooting.[18][19] Bowers had a history of making extreme,
antisemitic postings on the site.[20] After the shooting, Gab briefly went offline when it was dropped by its hosting provider and denied service by several payment processors.[21][22][23]
The popularity of alt-tech platforms surged in January 2021, when United States president
Donald Trump, and many of his prominent followers, were suspended from Twitter and other platforms.
Parler, a website with a large proportion of Trump supporters among its userbase, was taken offline when
Amazon Web Services suspended their hosting several days after the
January 6 storming of the United States Capitol.[24] It was restarted with a new host on February 15, 2021.[25]
In July 2021, an example of alt-tech hardware was announced as the "
Freedom Phone"—a
smartphone that promoted privacy-oriented features and an "uncensorable" app store. It was found that the device was merely a
white-label version of a Chinese smartphone produced by
Umidigi, with a modified
Androidfirmware pre-loaded with apps popular among the target audience, and a rebranded version of an
open source client for
Google Play Store (rather than the independent app store implied in its promotional materials).[26][27]
By 2022, The New York Times and The Guardian described a crowded marketplace of alt-tech platforms.[28][29]The Times noted that alt-tech platforms claiming censorship by Twitter, such as
Gettr, Parler, and Rumble have mostly advertised themselves on Twitter.[28]
In February 2022, Trump launched a Twitter alternative,
Truth Social, after establishing a messaging platform outside of Twitter,[28][29] such as a now discontinued Trump blog.[30] During development, Truth Social did not at first acknowledge using
Mastodon's open source code, and was given an ultimatum by Mastodon,[31] quietly admitting to the use of Mastodon code later on.[31][32][33] Truth Social's launch was accompanied by substantial technical difficulties.[34][32] The platform's terms of service include an incongruous clause that users may not "disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the Site."[32][35] According to a report from consumer rights group
Public Citizen, alt tech platforms with a supposed focus on free speech include the censorship of some liberal and conservative viewpoints, as well as the routine
content moderation on other platforms, creating an "
echo chamber". Based on the report, Truth Social was found to
shadowban users that disagree with the site's narrative as well as a swathe of other content including some conservative content. "Truth Social" has banned content mentioning liberal views on
abortion and the
Congressional hearings on the January 6th Capitol attack.[36][37][38]
Research
Deen Freelon and colleagues, publishing in
Science in September 2020, wrote that some alt-tech websites are specifically dedicated to serving right-wing communities, naming
4chan (founded in 2003),
8chan (2013),
Gab (2016),
BitChute (2017) and
Parler (2018) as examples. They noted that others were more ideologically neutral, such as
Discord and
Telegram.[1] Discord and Telegram have been used by
QAnonconspiracy theorists to promote
terrorism, which contributed to the
January 6th attack.[13] Discord later worked to remove right-wing extremists from its userbase, and became a more mainstream platform.[39] Joe Mulhall, a senior researcher for the UK anti-racism organization
Hope Not Hate, also distinguishes groups of alt-tech platforms: he says that some of them, such as DLive and Telegram, are "co-opted platforms" which have become widely popular among the far-right because of their minimal moderation; others including BitChute, Gab, and Parler are "bespoke platforms" which were created by people who themselves have "far-right leanings".[2]Ethan Zuckerman and Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci, in contrast, described alt-tech services in explicitly political terms in a 2021 article for the
Knight First Amendment Institute at
Columbia University:
We use the alt-tech term to refer to platforms that offer a promise of uncensored speech, which exist specifically to give a space for far-right, nationalist, racist, or extremist points of view, and which harbor a broad sense of grievance that speech has been "censored" for failure to be "politically correct." Many, but not all of these alt-tech sites are far-right communities.
Researchers have also found that alt-tech platforms can also be used by far-right extremists for mobilization and recruitment purposes, which is more dangerous than just spreading their viewpoints.[40]
Austrian researcher
Julia Ebner has described alt-tech platforms as "ultra-libertarian".[41]
^Donovan, Joan; Lewis, Becca; Friedberg, Brian (December 31, 2018). "Parallel Ports: Sociotechnical Change from the Alt-Right to Alt-Tech". In Fielitz, Maik; Thurston, Nick (eds.). Post-Digital Cultures of the Far Right: Online Actions and Offline Consequences in Europe and the US.
Bielefeld,
Germany: Transcript Verlag. pp. 49–66.
doi:10.14361/9783839446706-004.
ISBN978-3-8394-4670-6.
^Adam G. Klein (June 2010). A Space for Hate: The White Power Movement's Adaptation Into Cyberspace. Litwin Books. pp. 93, 104–105.
ISBN978-1-936117-07-9.