  In this paper, we characterize the content and discourse on BitChute, a
social video-hosting platform. Launched in 2017 as an alternative to YouTube,
BitChute joins an ecosystem of alternative, low content moderation platforms,
including Gab, Voat, Minds, and 4chan. Uniquely, BitChute is the first of these
alternative platforms to focus on video content and is growing in popularity.
Our analysis reveals several key characteristics of the platform. We find that
only a handful of channels receive any engagement, and almost all of those
channels contain conspiracies or hate speech. This high rate of hate speech on
the platform as a whole, much of which is anti-Semitic, is particularly
concerning. Our results suggest that BitChute has a higher rate of hate speech
than Gab but less than 4chan. Lastly, we find that while some BitChute content
producers have been banned from other platforms, many maintain profiles on
mainstream social media platforms, particularly YouTube. This paper contributes
a first look at the content and discourse on BitChute and provides a building
block for future research on low content moderation platforms.
