Why Are Many People Going Over to Alternative Social Media Networks Today?

Lisa Sicard
5 min readNov 23, 2020

Alternative social media networks have been around for a few years now. However, suddenly many people are flocking over to them. Why is that today, still?

It began a few years ago when the big 3 giant social media networks — Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube began to censor social media posts and videos on their platforms.

The most surprising censorship was on doctors and scientists who did not agree with members of the Coronavirus taskforce in the United States or with the World Health Organization.

Social media networks censoring content.

But wait, isn’t science supposed to be discussed? If we did not challenge scientists long ago, we would still believe the earth is flat, correct? Or would we call those that called the earth being round conspiracy theorists today?

It has become a challenge for those of us that want to read both sides of an issue or story.

How can we make intelligent informed decisions if all we see in mainstream social media is a one-sided story?

The Alternative Social Media Sites Growing Today

The biggest increase to the newer “alternative” social media networks have been on Parler, Rumble, MeWe, Minds, Gab, Gettr, and Ello to name a few.

MeWe has been around since 2016 and was named the 2020 Most Innovative Social Media Companies by Fast Company. You can find me there today.

Minds also have been around since 2015 and started out as a blockchain network. They do have a lot of cryptocurrency groups as well as a bloggers group that I am part of.

Now, the largest growing network Parler has been around since 2018 and grew by millions in November alone with 3.5 million new users. Of course, this could not be and Amazon cut the servers on this fastest-growing network.

On Rumble another 30 million viewed videos over on Rumble which also pays users for content.

But many scientists and the like jumped over to Rumble when their YouTube videos were banned.

Why Can’t People Decide for Themselves?

What is everyone trying to hide on mainstream social media, that we the people, cannot make decisions about our own lives?

I have always remembered being able to read 2 sides of every story when it came to politics, science, and religion. The science is what really baffles me.

After all, is not science “Knowledge gained by systematic observation, experiment, and reasoning; knowledge coordinated, (with many) arranged, and systematized; also, the prosecution of truth as thus known, both in the abstract and as a historical development.

Science is what got me interested in all of this censorship. Doctors who were working in hospitals with patients with the coronavirus. They had different stories to tell about medicines that were working in treating patients.

These doctors were not politicians. But yet when they came out to talk about these things on a video over on YouTube it was taken down.

Why could these doctors not talk to the task force or WHO and or other doctors in the field about these treatments? Why could not the general public be able to watch their videos about their findings?

Other Reasons People Are Going to Alternative Social Media Sites

Another reason many are fleeing traditional social media is that they are sadly getting beaten down by their own family and friends. Yes, they cannot post what they believe or are feeling without getting bashed. So, they leave.

They go where they are more welcome, can you not blame them?

Since these other social media networks do not censor any user can join. As long as they are not promoting violence or pornography. So, the user base will change as more time goes on.

Some claim they have “hate speech” but so do the mainstream social media sites. It seems the term “hate speech” is very objective today. Anytime someone does not agree with another person or organization they seem to refer to that as “hate speech.”

I could say the world is flat and someone would say that is hate speech, no?

Hate speech in the United States is not directly regulated due to the robust right to free speech found in the American Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that hate speech is legally protected free speech under the First Amendment.

Will Alternative Social Media Sites Last?

I think these alternative social media sites have a great chance of lasting as people are getting tired of the issues on mainstream social media accounts.

It is just like watching mainstream media. They only show one point and one side of the news — I believe that is called propaganda. Something many people will not participate in anymore.

All of these social media sites can continue to grow and thrive if all points are accepted and discussed in a polite manner without posts being slapped with all kinds of fat checks. Or the “f” bombs.

People need to go back to the time when manners were the norm. A time when we could politely disagree and discuss things in an intelligent manner without any nasty words or personal attacks.

It is so sad to see where we are at today. I only hope that social media can play a part in turning this around instead of making it worse as some claim and how it’s been going since 2020.

Sadly, the censorship on social media has spread to TV, radio, movies, TV shows, and just about anything you can read or listen to.

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Lisa Sicard

I love helping clients with blogging, SEO & social media to grow their digital presence and business. When not working I love to hike, snowmobile and crochet.