In response to accusations of speech–policing by crowdfunding sites like Patreon, GoFundMe, and Kickstarter, a censorship-free platform cheekily called Hatreon has emerged.
The site had a soft launch this summer, allowing selected creators the option to use the platform by invitation-only. On Sunday, Hatreon officially became open to the public, predictably hosting a slew of alt-right personalities, such as white supremacist Richard Spencer (pictured above) and The Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin, who’ve been booted off other platforms.
The video declaring the site open to the public boasts of their alt-right creators and features a mocking video clip of Patreon CEO Jack Conte discussing censorship based on the constructed concept of “Manifest Observable Behavior.”
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According to Newsweek, Hatreon founder Cody Wilson says he’s not a member of the alt-right but started the site “as a favor to some right-wing comedians who were kicked off Patreon.”
“It’s a delightful pun,” Wilson said of the site’s provocative name. “It’s meant to make fun of Patreon’s investigations of people for hate speech.”
Wilson, a controversial figure who’s also the founder and director of Defense Distributed, has personally been kicked off crowdfunding platforms before, such as Indiegogo and, more recently, Cloudflare.
Releasing the launch video on his Twitter account, Wilson said Hatreon was his “love letter to the failure of the European Union.”
“Firstly, as a tribute to our political embarrassment and symbolic misery I have built a website,” he wrote, unleashing the following thread:
Wilson is not worried about competitors and the monetary aspect of the project, but is looking forward to a prospective legal showdown with a European government on free speech grounds.
“My best hope for it right now is it will piss off Germany and we can have a showdown with European internet law,” he said.