Liveleak and Its Top 10 Alternatives

| Updated on 21 October 2024

With the thriving internet revolution, Liveleak has emerged as a unique platform for sharing sensitive video content.

From the inception of letters, telegrams, telegraphs, phones, and now the internet, humanity has experimented with something new at every step. Liveleaks was also an attempt to explore a new dimension in the information and content-sharing domain. 

It was developed as a fresh and distinct concept that gathered huge userbases in a short span. But its content kept on flaring discontent among people, resulting in it halting its operation. 

Liveleak

However, some other platforms have surfaced with the same spirit to provide freedom of expression and minimal censorship over content sharing. 

Before moving to those alternatives, let’s discuss the cardinal points surrounding Liveleak.

What is the Liveleak?

Liveleak.com came as an aftereffect of the video-sharing culture on the internet. 

It was developed in 2006 to provide a medium to share video content. Gradually, it became a platform to share violent, brutal, gory, and controversial videos, putting it at the center of the debate over the ethical use of the internet and content sharing.

It developed a culture of uploading leaked footage, clips of executions and inhuman acts, controversial videos, etc. to gather attention, which generally led to sparking agitation among communities. 

The platform became a hub for videos and clips that were censored on other platforms, keeping it always in a buzz. 

Why was Liveleak Discontinued?

The Liveleak website was taken down in 2021 owing to the public backlash and governmental interruptions. Some notable reasons behind this move were:

  1. Sharing violent videos. Ex video of hanging Saddam Hussain. 
  2. Sharing controversial content. Ex. 2008, the Anti-Quran film ‘Fitna’ was uploaded on it, which stirred agitation. Later, the website was forced to remove the movie. 
  3. Other video-sharing platforms with stricter censorship came as benchmarks, questioning the existence of Liveleaks.  

People claimed that the platform was inciting violence and gore and spreading the environment of fear rather than sharing information. Some Liveleak videos were fierce, showing inhuman acts and flaring a global debate over the moral use of the internet.

The deep engagement of people in its content made governments and radical groups take action against it. 

Its co-founder Hayden Hewitt in his last video on YouTube, said that maintaining this website had become a struggle and that he and his team just didn’t have it in them to carry on fighting. 

These all factors cumulatively contributed to the website being taken down in 2021. 

But the league has been continued by some alternatives that bred gradually in a similar niche. 

10 Best Liveleak Alternatives

Liveleak.com has blazed the trail for a new form of video-sharing medium. Though not popular among the majority audience, this concept has been copied to some extent by some other websites. 

These alternatives do not provide easy content uploading freedom due to stricter content guidelines to maintain ethical standards, but many support freedom of expression and stand against censorship. 

Here are the 10 Liveleak alternatives.

Reeleak

Reeleak

It has come forth as a potent alternative to sharing sensitive videos over the internet. 

Also named “LIVEGORE”, it calls itself a news channel that reports real-life events and publishes sensitive videos. The website is a medium to provide unfiltered videos and clips to keep the content raw and original. 

It is flooded with videos of violence, robberies, accidents, mishaps, etc. on the lines of the live leak.  

Positives
  • Contain leaked unfiltered videos
  • Liberal content policy
  • Convient user interaction – commenting rating and sharing videos
Negative
  • Legal and data privacy issues
  • Less audience reach
  • Contain extremely violent content

Dtube  

Dtube

Being a part of the blockchain and a decentralized platform i.e. without any central server, it comes with the features of no ads and no censorship. Here, no censorship means the website itself is not the sole decision maker of what is useful and what is not. 

But the Dtube community is given an edge over such decisions, making public opinion prevail. It also works on a different algorithm that recommends the most viewed and responded videos rather than those similar to your watch history. 

Also, uploading videos will help users earn DTube coins which can further be monetized in currency, with each dTube coin costing $0.1. 

Positives
  • Decentralised platform – impossible to delete content
  • Legal and safe to use
  • Liberal censorship policy
  • Easy to earn from Dtube
Negative
  • Small audience
  • Video monetization ends after a week of upload

Odysee 

Odysee

Formerly known as lbry.tv, Odysee is another spellbound product of blockchain, hence working as a decentralized platform. This makes it operable even without a VPN and being decentralized makes it almost impossible to delete the user’s account. 

Although the content on it can’t be deleted, there are certain community guidelines to control and streamline the standards of uploads. The platform has announced to remove all ads over it from August 2024. 

Also, being decentralized and having the least moderation over content have questioned the authenticity of the shared information.

Positives
  • Decentralised, uses blockchain
  • No ads
  • Increasing audience strength
Negative
  • Not automatically downscale or upscale the content.
  • Buffering issue in heavy videos

Dailymotion  

Dailymotion

Founded in 2005, Dailymotion is a video-sharing platform that is also called “European YouTube”. 

With significant reach and repute, the platform comes with a less restrictive censorship policy than YouTube. It has come out as a prominent platform for sharing news, short videos, and music. However, a nonpremium member may face heavy ad interruptions. 

Considering the content shared on it, the website has been banned in Russia and India for copyright violations and allegations of flourishing ISIS propaganda. But the website was later unblocked. 

Positives
  • More liberal content policy than YouTube. 
  • Supports high-quality video uploads. 
Negative
  • Ads interruptions and buffering issues for non-premium users
  • Less popular

Peertube 

Peertube

It is another decentralized platform powered by Web Torrent. 

Peertube aims to provide a censorship-free option and an alternative to centralized platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo. 

This ad-free video-sharing interface has been provided with community guidelines to handle the content uploaded over it. The website comes with an automatic caution to use a VPN or Tor Browser to keep the IP safe and to ensure freedom of expression.

Positives
  • Use peer-to-peer technology to reduce pressure on a single server.
  • Unlimited quota of upload and download. 
  • No ads
  • No obligatory monetization
Negative
  • Lesser reach than YouTube and other prominent video platforms.
  • Variation in quality of content.

Vimeo 

Vimeo

This American social video hosting platform aims to provide high-definition videos to its users.  It comes with a subscription to provide ad-free membership. 

The community guidelines on the website are framed to track and command content generation and sharing. 

It was also banned by some countries, such as China and Turkey, owing to its weak censorship policy and sharing of controversial content over it.

Positives
  • Privacy option to limit the visibility of content. 
  • Legal and safe platform.
  • Ad-free
Negative
  • Less audience size and reach.
  • Advanced features only for paid users.

Rumble 

Rumble

Founded in 2013 by Chris Pavlovksi, Rumble has come out as an effective option in the sequence. 

Its website declares itself “immune to cancel culture”. Rumble claims to support free speech and oppose censorship to ease content sharing. 

It comes with the option to allow the owners of the video to choose who can see their content, to protect the videos using a password, and to monetize the video.

The platform was banned in several countries, such as the UK, Brazil, Russia, and France, to coerce it to remove controversial content. The content over it has made people call it a ‘Platform to share contentious views’. 

Positives
  • Liberal content policy.
  • Stong copyright guidelines.
  • Increasing popularity (Donald Trump joined it)
Negative
  • Advanced features for the premium users.
  • Platform banned in some countries.

BitCHute 

Bitchute

This video-sharing platform says it is against censorship and is committed to freedom of expression. But it has been known to have moderation over content to some extent. 

Bitchute creators described themselves as a “small team making a stand against Internet censorship.”

As per Pew Research, one-third of the Bitchute accounts have been banned, suspended, or demonetized on other social media for sharing controversial content. ADL organization has also claimed Bit Chute of having violent, conspiratorial, and hate-filled videos, making it similar to Liveleak. 

Positives
  • Permissive content-sharing policy
  • Ads-free
  • Decentralised – peer-to-peer technology
Negative
  • Small audience size
  • Prone to extreme content 

YouTube 

Youtube logos

YouTube is the most renowned video-sharing platform, but has a stricter content-sharing policy. It also offers a premium subscription model, which is in high demand all over the world.

Being the digital haunt, it has gathered a tremendous user base, making it irresistible to apply a censorship policy. 

It has become a top spot for every content creator to appear and share content, hence elevating the need for censorship to avoid instigating a social outrage. 

To avoid unnecessary copyright strikes, YouTube is testing a new feature for creators to avoid takedowns.  

Positives
  • Huge audience size
  • Strong copyright policy
  • Safe, legal and user-friendly
Negative
  • Strict content policy
  • Ads for non-premium users
  • Strict monetisation policy

Flickr

Flickr

This photo and video hosting website is the next stop for sharing video content. 

With a maximum range of 1 GB content uploading capacity, it provides the facility to save content, send messages, and interact with people. 

Being a public platform, it has certain safety levels and censorship guidelines to manage hassle-free digital content sharing. However, the website was blocked by China in 2009 for its content.

Positives
  • 1 TB free storage for premium users. 
  • Growing popularity
  • Image recognition feature – automatically categorizes the images
Negative
  • Ads for non-premium users
  • Strict content policy

The above platforms provide significant opportunities for people to upload, share, and watch videos belonging to different categories. 

But out of the above alternatives, which is the ideal Liveleak replacement?

Let’s take a look. 

Which website is a Liveleak replacement?

It is improbable to have a genuine substitute for Liveleak. The violent and gore-containing videos of Liveleak were streamed due to the weak censorship policy.

As the pervasiveness of the internet is increasing with every passing minute, it has become a challenge to control such viral content. 

The wobbling global decorum has made it imperative for the national government to stay cautious of the digital content floating on the servers. Hence, it is unlikely to get a Liveleak replacement in the perfect sense

Websites like Liveleaks have been at the center of the debate over the content they deliver and their repercussions. 

The abovementioned websites have been a possible option to put content similar to Liveleak,  but its true replacement has yet to materialize.

Conclusion

The aforementioned websites are the prevailing Liveleak alternatives. Although their content-sharing policies are stricter to some extent, they provide a viable option to share content with variable censorship limits. 

Other similar sites like Liveleak are Ipfstube, Streamable, Vidlii, Engagemedia, Xfinity, Myvidster, and Item Fix. 

The ever-expanding reach of the internet provides an opportunity for development but at some cost. The violent content over the internet is highly volatile and contagious, making it prone to spreading like wildfire. 

But there is also a need to have a medium that provides significant freedom to netizens to reveal the hind side of public situations. 

Hence a harmonious blend of freedom of speech and censorship will make content sharing more fluent, ethical, and congruent to public welfare.  

Frequently Asked Questions
What is Liveleak?

Liveleak was a video-sharing platform that came with minimal censorship over its content, causing a flood of violent and gory videos.

What happened to Liveleak?

This British video-sharing platform was active from 2006 to 2021. As per Hayden Hewitt, a co-founder of the platform, they found it hard to continue due to the resistance they faced over the uploaded videos.

What replaced Liveleak?

The website was shut down in 2021 and no other website, in absolute terms, has replaced it. Although many censor-free alternatives have surfaced, such as Dtube, Rumble, and Peertube.

Is Liveleak illegal?

When operational between 2006 and 2021, Liveleak was accessible to all. It was not illegal at the time of its operation.

Is Liveleak still up?

It was shut down on 5th May 2021 due to resistance from different public communities and growing governmental actions.

Why did Liveleak shut down?

Owing to the violent, controversial, and gory content uploaded on it, the platform faced severe outrage from different sections of society. Later, the platform was taken down in 2021.

Vaibhav Krishna

Follow Me:

Comments Leave a Reply
Leave A Reply

Thanks for choosing to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our comment Policy.

Related Posts