Alt-tech

Alt-tech is a term used to describe websites, social media platforms, and internet service providers which position themselves as similar alternatives to mainstream counterparts. Many have become popular among the alt-right, far-right, and others who espouse extreme or fringe opinions, due to the conception that the alternative hosts provide less stringent content moderation than mainstream internet service providers.
Some alt-tech services have less stringent content moderation policies which have attracted users who were banned or restricted from more mainstream services, while some alt-tech services have been created specifically to cater to extremist users. In the 2010s, some conservatives banned from other social media platforms, and their supporters, began to post and view content on alt-tech platforms. Several alt-tech platforms describe themselves as protectors of free speech and individual liberty, which some researchers and journalists have described as a cover for far-right userbases and antisemitism on such platforms.
History.
Alt-tech websites were first described as such in the 2010s; they have seen an increase in popularity in the later part of that decade, as well as the early 2020s. This has been attributed, in part, to deplatforming, bans, and restrictions of activity imposed by companies such as Facebook and Twitter (sometimes described pejoratively as "Big Tech"). One prominent example is right-wing groups' claims that these companies censor their views.
After the August 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally, Internet companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter were criticized for failing to adhere to their own terms of service, and reacted with policies aimed toward "deplatforming" (refusing service to) white supremacists. 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. Ethan Zuckerman and Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci further referenced the August 2018 deplatforming of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones as a pivotal moment. Alt-tech platforms experienced another surge in popularity 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, though it was restarted with a new host a month later.
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. Discord later worked to remove right-wing extremists from its userbase, and became a more mainstream platform. 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". Ethan Zuckerman and Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci, in contrast, described alt-tech services in explicitly political terms in an article for the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University:
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.
Platforms.
Some websites and platforms that have been described as alt-tech include: