The French Covid-Denial Network on Odysee — Still Posting in 2026

Five years after the pandemic ended, a tight cluster of French-language Covid-denial channels is still actively posting on Odysee — with the latest videos dated 2026-04-30, six days before this article went up. The five channels we're naming below have 300+ flagged videos between them, recurring six-figure LBC stakes, and titles that range from "Le Code de Nuremberg, c'est l'heure de juger" to "Vaccins covid-19, effets secondaires." ARCOM (the French broadcasting regulator) has not acted. Odysee has not removed any of them.

Why French Specifically Matters

Odysee has zero multilingual moderation capacity. With four total employees, the platform has no one whose job it is to read French, German, Spanish, or any non-English content for guidelines violations. We've documented previously that non-English flagged content gets ~9x more views per item than English equivalents — the moderation black hole is not evenly distributed across languages, it's concentrated where no one's looking.

The French regulatory environment makes this acutely embarrassing for the platform. France has explicit statutes — the Loi Avia, Loi contre la manipulation de l'information, and Article L.3611-1 of the Code de la santé publique — that prohibit organised anti-vaccine disinformation campaigns. ARCOM has the statutory authority to order takedowns. The takedowns have not happened. Odysee is hosting French criminal-law violations and ARCOM is silent.

The Five Channels

Why Six-Year-Old Anti-Vaccine Content Is Still Damaging

The standard objection to flagging archive Covid content is "the pandemic is over, who cares." Three reasons it still matters in 2026:

• Vaccine programmes are ongoing. Covid boosters, mRNA flu vaccines, and the entire mRNA pipeline depend on baseline public confidence. French MMR-vaccination rates dropped to 85% in 2024 (vs the 95% needed for measles herd immunity), partly attributable to the same channels listed above pivoting from Covid to general anti-vaccine messaging.
• The audience is being radicalised in place. A 2021 viewer who came for "Pr Raoult" videos is being served, in 2026, Holocaust-trivialising "Code de Nuremberg" framings, Bill Gates-Epstein crossover content, and pro-Russia framings of Ukraine. The pipeline has not stopped, it has broadened.
• The LBC stakes prove ongoing investment. Channels with 5+ years of archive wouldn't be staking 8,000 LBC on individual 2021 videos today unless those videos were still doing meaningful work for the audience or the operator. Someone is still paying to keep this content visible.

What Has Been Reported, And To Whom

We have referred specific URLs from this cluster to ARCOM (Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique) under its Loi Avia notification process, and copied Coimisiún na Meán (Ireland's online-safety regulator, with EU-wide DSA jurisdiction over Odysee). Status as of publication: every URL still live. Full case detail on the takedown-tests page.

The Pattern, Not Just The Channels

The five channels above are not exhaustive. Our scanner has tagged 1,500+ French-language items as Conspiracy Promotion or Hate Speech across roughly 200 distinct French-language channels. We've named the most active and most-staked nodes here because they're where the platform's search algorithm keeps directing French speakers who type benign queries — not because they're anomalies. They are the load-bearing infrastructure of an entire French-language disinformation ecosystem that Odysee has built no defences against and that no regulator has compelled it to address.

What Should Happen Next

ARCOM has the authority to order takedowns of the URLs we've referred. Coimisiún na Meán has the authority to compel Odysee to demonstrate it has even attempted multilingual moderation under DSA Article 16. Either action would set the precedent that a four-employee Las Vegas company cannot host EU-illegal content for tens of millions of EU monthly visitors and face zero regulatory consequence. The infrastructure for accountability exists. The will has not been there.