Sure, nobody wants to be associated with the next armed person who tries to take down a “secret pedo ring” in the non-existent basement of a pizza joint. After all, it may not end without bloodshed next time. Advertisers are going to start placing similar demands on YouTube that they do on TV, and for the same reasons. They don’t want or need bad press.

Of course this might finally open the door to taking a slice of the video hosting pie. It might also end up like a Reddit vs. Voat, because at the end of the day a lot of the crap being objected to here is really quite objectionable. I know that people like to invoke freedom of expression arguments, censorship and so on, but again, look at Voat if you haven’t eaten lately; it’s a combination of appalling and dead.

Usefully though, these alt sites can act as a useful way to monitor the degree of real censorship, if it exists. When and if you start to see significant amounts of something other than paranoia and hate there, you’ll know something is being suppressed elsewhere. So far though, not much.