0% Removed. 106,508 Still Live.
Faurisson, Reynouard, Zündel — three convicted Holocaust deniers are featured in a single video on Odysee right now. Odysee's four employees have not removed it. They have not removed anything.
"Just being a white nationalist or nazi isn't grounds for removal."
— Julian Chandra, Odysee CEO (then LBRY VP), leaked internal email to moderators (obtained by The Guardian, May 2021). Still Odysee's stated policy.
0%
Removal Rate
106,508
Items Still Live
24.7M
Est. LBC Currently Staked on Flagged Content
1,068
Days Since Odysee Acknowledged Any Removal
Live re-check of every item recorded at ≥1,000 LBC; smaller items counted at their peak. How we measure
What Is Odysee?
Odysee is a video-sharing platform built on the LBRY blockchain protocol, launched in September 2020 by CEO Jeremy Kauffman. Positioned as a "free speech" alternative to YouTube, it quickly attracted creators deplatformed from mainstream services — many for promoting extremism and terrorism. GNET researcher Eviane Leidig named it "The New YouTube for the Far-Right" in a 2021 research paper.
In May 2021, The Guardian obtained a leaked internal email from LBRY VP Julian Chandra stating "just being a white nationalist or nazi isn't grounds for removal". This email — accidentally sent to the user who complained about neo-Nazi content — revealed the real moderation philosophy behind Odysee's paper Community Guidelines. 23 independent investigations from SPLC, GNET, ISD, DFRLab, CheckFirst, EU DisinfoLab, The Guardian, GBH News, Miami New Times, and Protos have since documented systematic non-enforcement.
The SPLC's Data Lab tracked 165 extremist channels hosting 50,459 videos over 28 months, finding $336,000 in Hyperchat tips from 4,557 donors to hate groups. Named profiteers include a Charlottesville fugitive earning $33,023 while evading law enforcement, a neo-fascist novelist earning $65,362, and an antisemitic broadcaster banned from every major payment platform except Odysee making $7,000+/month.
GBH News traced Odysee's origins to a $300,000 seed investment from Pillar VC, a downtown Boston venture capital firm. The DFRLab found Odysee hired the developer behind Bitwave — a streaming site so saturated with white supremacist content that the Christchurch mosque shooting video was found on its servers. That infrastructure now powers Odysee's live streams.
Why This Matters
When a platform fails to moderate illegal content, the consequences go beyond policy violations. Real people are harassed, extremist movements are funded, and terrorist propaganda reaches new audiences.
Blockchain Permanence
Content published to LBRY is replicated across decentralized nodes globally. Even if Odysee removes a video from their frontend, the underlying data persists on-chain and can be accessed through alternative LBRY clients like the LBRY Desktop app. This makes removal functionally impossible once content is published.
Monetized Extremism
Odysee's built-in LBC tipping system allows viewers to send cryptocurrency directly to creators — including designated terrorist organizations, neo-Nazi propagandists, and channels that doxx and threaten individuals. The SPLC found over $336,000 in tips directed to identified hate groups.
Systematic Inaction
Reports from users go unanswered for weeks or months. Community Guidelines exist on paper but are not enforced consistently. The GNET, ISD Global, CheckFirst, and multiple investigative journalists have independently documented this pattern of negligent moderation.
Real-World Harm
This is not an abstract policy debate. Victims of doxxing on Odysee have faced real-world stalking. Terrorist recruitment videos have reached thousands of viewers. Drug synthesis tutorials, weapons manufacturing guides, and fraud how-tos are monetized and promoted by the platform's recommendation algorithm.
What We Monitor
Our automated scanning system checks Odysee daily across 14 categories of illegal and violating content.
The Numbers Don't Lie
Our automated scanner crawled Odysee and found thousands of items that violate the platform's own Community Guidelines. Here's what the data shows.
106,508
flagged items still live on Odysee — every single one accessible right now
100%
of flagged content is still active on Odysee — zero items removed
24.7M
est. LBC currently staked on flagged content — Odysee earns 5% on every transaction
13,693
distinct channels hosting flagged content — across dozens of named figures profiled on this site
1,009,486.43
LBC staked on the single most-staked flagged item — pay-to-rank in plain sight
~1,233K
LBC in platform fees Odysee earned from flagged content (5% cut)
Repeat Offender Channels
These channels have dozens to hundreds of flagged videos and continue operating with zero enforcement from Odysee:
Original Reporting
Latest Investigations
Collapse Watch №4 — The Domain Is Paid Through 2027. The Site Was “Unusable All Week.”
Fourth reading of our post-departure watch. The October-11 domain-expiry test we set in №3 was answered early — and backwards: somebody renewed odysee.com through 2027 (odycdn.com too). The bill got paid. But the site kept breaking — the instability we caught at the start of September ran on through mid-month: users calling it “unusable all week,” eternal buffering, a possible new “weekly access allowance,” and a creator posting a video titled “A Hard Week for Odysee.” Traffic turned down for the first time in the series (Tranco slid to a window low of 9,895 then stayed there). Still no September roundup, no press, and no official reply to any of the 164 comments on the last one. The recorded stake ledger is busier but hollow: ~68% of recorded placements are two channels moving existing stake onto new videos (corrected October 11 — not new money) and everything already in the corpus gained zero LBC. Zero platform removals, still.
Collapse Watch №3 — After 33 Days of Silence, Odysee Spoke. It Recommended Some Gaming Channels.
Third reading of our post-departure watch. The official channel's first post in 33 days landed September 2: a routine channel-recommendation roundup with zero words about the departed CEO, the lawsuits, or the performance complaints stacking up beneath it. It misdescribed one of its own featured creators (“I think Odysee mixed me up with someone else”), was corrected on-chain the next day, drew 138 comments — and the company answered none of them. Users are doing the communications department's job: telling each other the CEO left, asking “who exactly is the CEO of Odysee?”, and reporting a site “unusable all week.” Our scanner: recorded stake placements doubled to ~30,300 LBC/day, but 82% is two channels moving existing stake onto new videos (@apologeet's exact 50,000s, @BarrettMopar's 18,540.01 pot — corrected October 11, not new money) and items already in the corpus gained exactly zero LBC. Twenty-one more items fell out of search; 21/21 still live — 58/58 across three windows. One anonymous claim left by on-chain abandonment, not moderation. Next: the October 11 domain renewal.
Collapse Watch №2 — Day 48: The Flatline Holds, and the Only Stake Still Moving Is One Recycled Pot
Second reading of our post-departure watch. 48 days of official silence — Odysee's own channel has now gone a full month without a post, and the CEO's bio still says “Founder & CEO.” Recorded stake placements did not fall again; they settled at a collapsed floor of ~14,600 LBC a day — 58% of them one channel moving the same ~18,540-LBC pot onto each new upload every two days (corrected October 11 — not new money), while stake added to everything else already in the corpus totalled four LBC. New flagged content holds at about 5 items/day. Twenty more items fell out of search; all 20 still resolve live — 37 of 37 across two windows, zero removals. In Texas, the plaintiffs moved to strike the untimely filings that include the sworn declaration naming Odysee. On r/odysee, the first post in three and a half months is a newcomer begging strangers for 1 LBC because no exchange will sell it. The machine still runs — uploads confirm in real time, traffic rank improved, seven frontend commits. Next hard date: the odysee.com domain expires October 11.
Collapse Watch №1 — Six Weeks After “It's Over Now,” Odysee Is Running on Autopilot
First reading of our post-departure watch. 41 days of official silence — Odysee's channel hasn't posted since July 31 and has never acknowledged its CEO's exit; his bio still says “Founder & CEO.” Our scanner recorded an 83% fall in stake placements between windows (corrected October 11 — a comparison of placement totals, not new money) and new-flagged-content down to 8 items/day. Trustpilot has gained zero reviews since May 7 and lost three. A sworn federal declaration (In re: Rare Breed Triggers, E.D. Tex., Aug 18) entered Odysee URLs into the court record as the release channel for 3D-printed trigger files. And yet: uploads flow, traffic rank is flat, the app got patched — the platform runs; the institution around it is gone. Zero removals, still.
In Their Own Words
"[Groups like the Proud Boys] should be allowed to speak to others that want to hear them."
— Jeremy Kauffman, Odysee CEO, after the January 6 Capitol insurrection (Proud Boys leaders later convicted of seditious conspiracy)
"The most censorship-resistant system to ever exist for the purposes of publishing digital content."
— Jeremy Kauffman, Odysee CEO, describing the LBRY protocol (cited in SPLC Digital Threat Report)
"A healthy democracy requires free speech."
— Sam Williams, Forward Research CEO, dismissing the SPLC's findings when acquiring Odysee in June 2024 (The Block)
Help Hold Odysee Accountable
Whether you've been personally harassed, encountered illegal content, or want to support accountability — there are concrete steps you can take.