![\"\"](\"https:\/\/national-justice.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/w726xauto\/public\/2020\/12\/18\/bitchute.jpg?itok=H_Vs0xgu\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAlt-tech powerhouse Bitchute has grown exponentially, going from a humble volunteer project to a rising Youtube competitor. Yet after tasting a degree of success, it\u00a0is now\u00a0finding itself mired in controversy over betrayal of its founding beliefs.<\/p>\n
While the platform itself is technically clunky, the key to its business model is their promise to\u00a0protect political dissidents and not censor their speech.<\/p>\n
But last week, members of the Sweden-based activist\u00a0organization, the Nordic Resistance Movement, were\u00a0shocked to find<\/a>\u00a0that Bitchute not only deleted all of the videos on their official channel, but actually put them on a\u00a0“Proscribed List\u00a0of Terrorists”<\/a>\u00a0alongside\u00a0ISIS and Al-Qaeda. By placing NRM on the list, Bitchute can get around its promise to defend free expression by claiming they are an officially designated violent terror group.<\/p>\n NRM is not engaging in armed struggle\u00a0and it does not have a\u00a0militia, nor\u00a0does it\u00a0engage in terrorism.\u00a0It is an above-ground advocacy\u00a0organization\u00a0that\u00a0runs candidates in Swedish elections. The group does not hide its activities, and its actions are published to their\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0for everyone to see.<\/p>\n The main goal of NRM is to create a united confederation of Scandinavian nations through political, not violent means. The group takes painstaking efforts to obey the law and\u00a0prohibits members from engaging in violence except in cases of self-defense, as “Antifa” groups often target them.<\/p>\n Bitchute’s designation of NRM as a “terrorist” group seems to stem entirely from a controversial ruling by Finnish courts to\u00a0ban\u00a0the group’s local branch. The Finnish government was pressured by Israel to ban the Finnish activist group in September 2020\u00a0after\u00a0Israeli diplomats claimed<\/a>\u00a0their embassy was\u00a0vandalized\u00a0following\u00a0an anti-war protest, even though the culprits were never actually identified.<\/p>\n Also on Bitchute’s terrorist list is Golden Dawn, the Greek nationalist group\u00a0that until recently held 18 parliamentary seats and was the country’s third largest party. This year, Golden Dawn’s parliamentary bloc was declared a “criminal organization” and imprisoned.<\/p>\n Neither NRM or Golden Dawn are classified as terrorist or criminal organizations in the UK.\u00a0British companies are not tethered to the rules and whims\u00a0of individual European Union states.\u00a0Bitchute’s choice to take away the voice of dissidents while they face unfair political persecution is selective and self-defeating, making\u00a0the whole concept of free speech pointless. Last July, the Chinese government\u00a0declared leaders<\/a>\u00a0of the Hong Kong protests to be terrorists, yet they are not banned from using Bitchute.<\/p>\n A spokesman for the Nordic Resistance Movement told\u00a0National Justice<\/em>\u00a0that he believes Bitchute’s owner, Ray Vahey, is buckling under Jewish\u00a0pressure. Last June a UK-based Zionist organization, the Community Safety Trust,\u00a0listed Bitchute<\/a>\u00a0as a “purveyor of anti-Semitism” because it allows members to criticize Jews and discuss the Holocaust.\u00a0 The next month, Bitchute released a press release\u00a0vowing to give<\/a>\u00a0Hope Not Hate — the British equivalent\u00a0of the Southern Poverty Law Center\u00a0— say over who can and cannot use their platform.<\/p>\n Bitchute has been able to grow largely thanks to support from political dissidents who groups like Hope Not Hate would love to see banned. Censorship is always a slippery slope, by shutting down legitimate political parties and parliamentary groups facing political oppression, Bitchute ends up being nothing more than a buggy and small version of YouTube.<\/p>\n