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Voat

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For the voting system, see Voatz.
Voat Inc.
Type of businessPrivate
Type of site
Social news
Available inEnglish
DissolvedDecember 25, 2020; 3 years ago (2020-12-25)
Country of originSwitzerland
URLwww.voat.co
(archived 2 January 2015)
CommercialYes
RegistrationRequired to post
LaunchedApril 2014; 10 years ago (2014-04) (as WhoaVerse)
Current statusDefunct
Written inC#

Voat Inc (/ˈvoʊt/; styled VOΛT) was an American alt-tech[1] news aggregator and social networking service where registered community members could submit content such as text posts and direct links. Registered users could then vote on these submissions. Content entries were organized by areas of interest called "subverses".[2][3] The website was widely described as a Reddit clone[4] and a hub for the alt-right.[9] Voat CEO Justin Chastain made an announcement on December 22, 2020 that Voat would shut down.[10] The site was shut down on December 25, 2020.[11]

Overview

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Voat was a site which hosted aggregated content and discussion forums. According to Wired, Voat was "aesthetically and functionally similar to Reddit."[12] Like Reddit, Voat was a collection of entries submitted by its registered users to themed categories (called "subverses" on Voat) similar to a bulletin board system. Unlike Reddit, Voat emphasized looser content restrictions and an ad-revenue sharing program.[13][14][15] Voat was written in the C# programming language, while Reddit is written in Python.[16][17]

Voat was described by media outlets including Quartz, The New York Times, New York, and the US and UK editions of Wired, as a hub for the alt-right.[9] The site was also widely described as a clone of Reddit,[4] or sometimes dubbed "the alt-right Reddit".[22] In a January 2017 New Yorker article, Voat was described as a descendant of 2chan, 4chan, and 8chan, where users compete for shock value.[23] The Verge described the site as "Imzy's dark twin", in that both were indirect products of the Gamergate culture war.[24] The site has also been described by The Verge as a model for other "censorship-free" alt-tech services, including Gab, Parler, and Hatreon.[20]

The name "Voat" is a play on the words 'goat' and 'vote'.[17] The site's mascot is a goat.[25] The website used the top level domain .co, and was registered in November 2019.[26]

Company and funding

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Founded in April 2014 as WhoaVerse, the website was a hobby project of Atif Colo (known on Voat as @Atko), then a college student. He was later joined by Justin Chastain (known as @PuttItOut on Voat).[27][28] The website has been labelled as an alternative to Reddit with a focus on freedom of expression.[14][25][29] In December 2014, WhoaVerse changed its name to Voat for ease of use.[30]

Although Voat was based in Switzerland,[31] Voat became incorporated in the United States in August 2015. Colo explained in a post announcing the incorporation that this was because "Switzerland seemed like a great option in the beginning, but when it comes to freedom of speech, the main idea behind Voat, U.S. law by far beats every other candidate country we’ve researched."[32] Following a large influx of users from Reddit in July 2015, Voat's operators were approached by investors interested in funding the project, though they said they "hadn't had the time to talk" about the offers.[25]

In January 2017, Colo resigned as CEO of Voat, citing a lack of time available to devote to the site. Colo was replaced as CEO by Chastain.[33]

Shutdown

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In May 2017, Chastain ran a fundraising campaign, announcing that Voat might have to shut down due to lack of money.[24] However, after forming a partnership with an investor, Voat stayed online.[20]

On December 22, 2020, Voat again announced that it would be shut down due to a lack of funding. Co-founder and CEO Chastain said that he had been funding the site himself after a key investor defaulted on their contract in March, but had run out of money by December.[20] On December 25, 2020, Voat shut down.[34]

History

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Over Voat's six years of operation, accusations of censorship against Reddit and its moderation decisions, including the banning of various subreddits, caused several influxes of Reddit users to Voat.[35] In early June 2015, after Reddit banned five subreddits for harassment—the largest of which, r/fatpeoplehate, had around 150,000 subscribers[12][36]—many users of Reddit began to create accounts on Voat.[31] The influx of new participants temporarily overloaded the site, causing downtime.[21][37] In early July 2015, following the dismissal of a popular administrator on Reddit, another influx of Reddit members registered with Voat,[38] leading to traffic levels which again caused Voat to experience downtime.[39][40] In November 2016, more users relocated to Voat after Reddit banned the Pizzagate conspiracy theory subreddit, r/pizzagate, due to doxing and harassment concerns.[41][42] In November 2017, some of Reddit's incel community moved to Voat after an incel community, r/incels, was banned on Reddit.[43] On September 12, 2018, Reddit banned several subreddits dedicated to discussing the QAnon conspiracy theory, stating that they had violated its rules prohibiting "inciting violence, harassment, and the dissemination of personal information."[44][45] This caused many of the QAnon posters to migrate to Voat.[46]

In April 2019, Voat's CEO announced in a post that he had been contacted by a "US agency" about threats that were being posted on the website. In the post, he wrote that Voat would work with law enforcement and take down any "gray area" posts if requested. According to Vice, "Voat users took offense to the perceived curtailing of their ability to post racial slurs and endorse violence. The first comment on Chastain's post opened with an anti-Semitic slur and call to exterminate Jews."[47]

Deplatforming and cyberattacks

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Voat's web hosting service, Host Europe (a precursor to Webfusion), refused service to Voat in June 2015, alleging that the service "was publicizing incitement of the people, as well as abusive, insulting and youth-endangering content" and "illegal right-wing extremist content."[18] Host Europe is based in Germany, and is subject to stronger hate speech laws than those of the United States.[34] Voat's founder attributed the shutdown to political correctness.[18] PayPal froze payment processing services to Voat the same month due to "sexually oriented materials or services."[27][48][49][50][19] Voat shut down four of its own subverses in response, two of which hosted sexualized images of minors ("jailbait").[15] The website continued to accept cryptocurrency donations,[25][34] and was able to continue functioning as it had moved to a different hosting provider.[51] The website continued to experience downtime due to an ongoing distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, rendering the 700,000 unique visitors unable to access the site.[15]

Also in July, Voat, alongside WikiLeaks, was subject to a Bitcoin "dust" attack and more DDoS attacks. The Bitcoin attack slowed payment processing to the websites.[52] The DDoS attack, launched July 12, was unsuccessful due to Cloudflare DDoS protection services, although it had the side effect of rendering third-party Voat apps incapable of functioning.[53][54]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Roose, Kevin (December 11, 2017). "The Alt-Right Created a Parallel Internet. It's an Unholy Mess". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 23, 2022. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  2. ^ Edison Hayden, Michael (June 7, 2019). "A Guide to Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)". Columbia Journalism Review. Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Archived from the original on June 18, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  3. ^ a b Reynolds, Matt (July 23, 2018). "The wheels are falling off the alt-right's version of the internet". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Archived from the original on May 4, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  4. ^ a b [18][19][20][21]
  5. ^ Sinders, Caroline (September 27, 2017). "There's an alt-right version of everything". Quartz. Archived from the original on January 16, 2018. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  6. ^ Roose, Kevin (December 11, 2017). "The 'alt-right' created a parallel internet. It's a holy mess". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 16, 2018. Retrieved January 16, 2018 – via CNBC.
  7. ^ Ellis, Emma Grey (September 27, 2017). "Red Pilled: My Bizarre Week Using the Alt-Right's Vision of the Internet". Wired. Archived from the original on January 17, 2018. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  8. ^ a b Kircher, Madison Malone (May 27, 2017). "Imzy, the Nice Reddit, Follows the Alt-Right Reddit, Voat, to the Grave". Select All. Archived from the original on January 16, 2018. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  9. ^ a b [3][5][6][7][8]
  10. ^ "Voat.co, another Reddit Clone, goes offline on Christmas - DroidMaze". droidmaze.com. December 25, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2023.
  11. ^ "I Can't Keep It Up". Voat. Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
  12. ^ a b Kamen, Matt (June 11, 2015). "Reddit in revolt over anti-harassment policy enforcement". Wired UK. Archived from the original on June 12, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  13. ^ Smith, Dave (July 9, 2015). "This website has a great chance at stealing Reddit's massive online community". Business Insider. Archived from the original on July 11, 2015. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
  14. ^ a b Pullen, John Patrick (July 21, 2015). "Some Reddit Users Are Flocking to This New Site". Time. Archived from the original on July 21, 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
  15. ^ a b c Robertson, Adi (July 10, 2015). "Welcome to Voat: Reddit killer, troll haven, and the strange face of internet free speech". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on July 10, 2015. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
  16. ^ Kamen, Matt (June 22, 2015). "Reddit rival Voat.co killed by hosting company". Wired UK. Archived from the original on June 26, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  17. ^ a b "About Voat – Who's the team behind this". Voat. Archived from the original on February 25, 2015. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  18. ^ a b c Sawers, Paul (June 19, 2015). "Amid censorship brouhaha, Reddit clone Voat has its servers closed by hosting provider". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  19. ^ a b Hern, Alex (June 22, 2015). "Reddit clone Voat dropped by web host for "political incorrect" content". The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  20. ^ a b c d e Robertson, Adi (December 22, 2020). "'Free speech' Reddit clone Voat says it will shut down on Christmas". The Verge. Archived from the original on December 22, 2020. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  21. ^ a b Pick, Rachel (June 23, 2015). "PayPal Cuts Off Reddit Clone Voat Over 'Obscenity'". Motherboard. Archived from the original on July 3, 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
  22. ^ [8][20]
  23. ^ Nussbaum, Emily (January 23, 2017). "How Jokes Won the Election". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on June 8, 2017. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  24. ^ a b Robertson, Adi (May 25, 2017). "Friendly social network Imzy is shutting down". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 25, 2017. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  25. ^ a b c d Poletti, Therese (July 10, 2015). "Creator of surging Reddit rival Voat: We will avoid same mistakes". MarketWatch. Dow Jones & Company. Archived from the original on July 10, 2015. Retrieved July 11, 2015.
  26. ^ "Voat.co Domain Metrics". Archived from the original on October 2, 2015. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  27. ^ a b Russon, Mary-Ann (July 13, 2015). "What is Voat, the anti-censorship alternative to Reddit that trolls have flocked to?". International Business Times. Archived from the original on July 14, 2015. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  28. ^ "WhoaVerse is changing name | announcements". Voat – Solidarité. Archived from the original on September 7, 2015. Retrieved November 17, 2015.
  29. ^ Berschewsky, Tapio (June 11, 2015). "Kiusaamiseen puuttuminen aiheutti massapaon palvelusta – ja kaatoi toisen". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Archived from the original on July 11, 2015. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
  30. ^ "WhoaVerse is changing name". Voat. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  31. ^ a b Hern, Alex (June 15, 2015). "Reddit users flee to Swiss copy Voat after harassment clampdown". The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 1, 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
  32. ^ Dewey, Caitlyn (August 6, 2015). "Contrary to the Internet crybabies, online speech in the U.S. is really free, actually". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 6, 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  33. ^ Colo, Atif (January 27, 2017). "Change of Guard! | announcements". Voat. Archived from the original on January 28, 2017. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  34. ^ a b c Cox, Kate (December 28, 2020). "Reddit clone Voat, home to hate speech and QAnon, has shut down". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on December 28, 2020. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  35. ^ Dewey, Caitlyn (February 18, 2015). "The 'Reddit exodus' is a perfect illustration of the state of free speech on the Web". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 7, 2015. Retrieved July 11, 2015.
  36. ^ Woollacott, Emma (June 11, 2015). "Users Flock To Voat As Reddit Shuts Harassing Groups". Forbes. Archived from the original on June 15, 2015. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
  37. ^ Herman, Barbara (June 11, 2015). "What Is Voat? Reddit FatPeopleHate Ban Has Users Migrate To Unmoderated Space, Complain On Twitter". International Business Times. Archived from the original on June 12, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  38. ^ Carson, Biz (July 2, 2015). "Reddit's popular 'ask me anything' feature is down after a key employee is gone". Business Insider. Archived from the original on July 3, 2015. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
  39. ^ Kelion, Leo (July 8, 2015). "Reddit rival Voat buckles under demand". BBC News. Archived from the original on July 8, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  40. ^ Truong, Kevin (July 6, 2015). "With Reddit blackout, users revolt for second time this summer". The Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2015 – via Yahoo! News.
  41. ^ Ohlheiser, Abby (November 23, 2016). "Fearing yet another witch hunt, Reddit bans 'Pizzagate'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 30, 2016. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
  42. ^ Rosenberg, Eli (December 7, 2016). "Roberta's, Popular Brooklyn Restaurant, Is Pulled Into 'Pizzagate' Hoax". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 7, 2016. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
  43. ^ Hathaway, Jay (November 10, 2017). "Why Reddit finally banned one of its most misogynistic forums". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on November 11, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  44. ^ Jacobs, Emily (September 12, 2018). "Reddit has banned the QAnon conspiracy subreddit r/GreatAwakening". New York Post. Archived from the original on October 17, 2018 – via Fox News.
  45. ^ Robertson, Adi (September 12, 2018). "Reddit has banned the QAnon conspiracy subreddit r/GreatAwakening". The Verge. Archived from the original on September 16, 2018. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  46. ^ Owen, Tess (July 10, 2019). "The Epstein Scandal Is Giving QAnon Everything Pizzagate Couldn't". Vice News. Archived from the original on September 29, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2019. The QAnon community largely congregate on alternative social media platforms (after they were excommunicated from Reddit) such as Voat [...]
  47. ^ Emerson, Sarah (April 26, 2019). "Voat, the 'Censorship-Free' Reddit, Begs Users to Stop Making Death Threats". Vice. Archived from the original on December 29, 2020. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  48. ^ "PayPal Cuts Off Reddit Clone Voat Over 'Obscenity'". Motherboard. VICE. June 23, 2015. Archived from the original on December 6, 2016. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  49. ^ Dewey, Caitlin (June 23, 2015). "This is what happens when you create an online community without any rules, part 2". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  50. ^ Macadangdang, Rex (June 23, 2015). "Web Host Shuts Down Reddit Clone Voat For Politically Incorrect Content". Tech Times. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  51. ^ "Our provider, hosteurope.de shut down our servers due to "political incorrectness"". June 20, 2015. Archived from the original on July 13, 2015. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
  52. ^ Pearson, Jordan (July 9, 2015). "WikiLeaks Is Now a Target In the Massive Spam Attack on Bitcoin". Motherboard. Archived from the original on July 10, 2015. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
  53. ^ Roberts, Jeff John (July 13, 2015). "New Reddit rival Voat hit by DDoS attack". Fortune. Archived from the original on July 14, 2015. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  54. ^ Khan, Imad (July 13, 2015). "Reddit rival Voat hit with DDoS attacks". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on July 17, 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
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