The YouTube Dumping Ground: 162 Banned Videos That Found a Profitable Home on Odysee

When YouTube bans a creator or removes a video, that content doesn't disappear. It moves to Odysee. Our scan found 162 videos explicitly labeled as banned, deleted, or removed from YouTube — and every single one is live, accessible, and in many cases monetized through Odysee's tipping system. The creators don't hide it. They advertise it.

The Scale

We searched Odysee's own API for content that self-identifies as banned or removed from other platforms. The results:

The Banned Creator Pipeline

The creators who end up on Odysee after being banned from YouTube are not random small channels. They are some of the most high-profile policy violators on the internet:

• Alex Jones — Banned from YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, and Apple in August 2018 for hate speech and harassment. Has 247 flagged videos on Odysee with 168,471 views and 11,530 LBC in tips.
• Sneako — Banned from YouTube in 2023 for violating hate speech policies. Videos referencing his ban are live on Odysee.
• LeafyIsHere — Banned from YouTube in 2020 for repeated harassment. Multiple videos about his ban uploaded to Odysee.
• Steven Crowder — Demonetized and suspended from YouTube. References to his censorship are featured on Odysee.

YouTube didn't ban these creators on a whim. Each underwent investigation, multiple warnings, and formal policy review before removal. YouTube employs thousands of content moderators and uses automated detection systems. When YouTube determines content violates its policies, that determination represents significant institutional analysis.

Odysee takes those same creators, gives them monetized channels, and calls it "free speech."

"Odysee for the Win!" — Celebrating the Lack of Rules

The most revealing aspect of this data is how creators frame their migration. They don't pretend Odysee has better technology or a better community. They celebrate the absence of moderation:

This is Odysee's actual value proposition — not decentralization, not blockchain technology, not creator freedom. The selling point is: we won't enforce any rules. And the creators who were banned for hate speech, harassment, and misinformation know it.

The Reject Economy

This isn't just about hosting banned content — it's about profiting from it. When a creator banned from YouTube for hate speech starts earning LBC tips on Odysee, the platform takes a 5% cut. The content that YouTube determined was harmful enough to warrant permanent removal becomes Odysee's revenue stream.

Our broader scan found that Odysee hosts 4,711 flagged items with 11.5 million views and 1.13 million LBC in tips. The 162 self-identified YouTube rejects are the tip of the iceberg — they're just the ones who openly label themselves as banned. The actual volume of content that migrated from YouTube after policy enforcement is far higher.

YouTube vs. Odysee: By the Numbers

The Implication

Every major platform on the internet — YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, X/Twitter, Twitch — has determined that certain content is harmful enough to warrant removal. They employ thousands of people and spend billions of dollars on the problem. When they remove content, it represents a considered judgment that the harm outweighs the speech interest.

Odysee's entire business model is to reverse those judgments — to take the content that the rest of the internet has rejected and give it a new home with monetization. It's not a platform for creators. It's a platform for content that got creators banned. And with 4 employees and a 0% removal rate, that's exactly how it's designed to stay.