Over Voat's six years of operation, accusations of censorship against Reddit and its moderation decisions, including the banning of various subreddits, caused several influxes of Reddit users to Voat. Co-founder and CEO Chastain said that he had been funding the site himself after a key investor defaulted on their contract in March, but had run out of money by December. On December 22, 2020, Voat again announced that it would be shut down due to a lack of funding. However, after forming a partnership with an investor, Voat stayed online. In May 2017, Chastain ran a fundraising campaign, announcing that Voat might have to shut down due to lack of money. In January 2017, Colo resigned as CEO of Voat, citing a lack of time available to devote to the site. law by far beats every other candidate country we’ve researched." Following a large influx of users from Reddit in July 2015, Voat's operators were approached by investors interested in funding the project, though they said they "hadn't had the time to talk" about the offers. Colo explained in a post announcing the incorporation that this was because "Switzerland seemed like a great option in the beginning, but when it comes to freedom of speech, the main idea behind Voat, U.S. Īlthough Voat was based in Switzerland, Voat became incorporated in the United States in August 2015. In December 2014, WhoaVerse changed its name to Voat for ease of use. The website has been labelled as an alternative to Reddit with a focus on freedom of expression.
He was later joined by Justin Chastain (known as on Voat). Company and funding įounded in April 2014 as WhoaVerse, the website was a hobby project of Atif Colo (known on Voat as then a college student. The website used the Colombian top level domain. The name "Voat" is a play on the words 'goat' and 'vote'. The site has also been described by The Verge as a model for other "censorship-free" alt-tech services, including Gab, Parler, and Hatreon. The Verge described the site as " Imzy 's dark twin", in that both were indirect products of the Gamergate culture war. In a January 2017 New Yorker article, Voat was described as a descendant of 2chan, 4chan, and 8chan, where users compete for shock value. The site was also widely described as a clone of Reddit, or sometimes dubbed "the alt-right Reddit". Voat was described by media outlets including Quartz, The New York Times, New York, and the US and UK editions of Wired, as a hub for the alt-right. Voat was written in the C# programming language, while Reddit is written in Python. Unlike Reddit, Voat emphasized looser content restrictions and an ad-revenue sharing program. According to Wired, Voat was "aesthetically and functionally similar to Reddit." Like Reddit, Voat was a collection of entries submitted by its registered users to themed categories (called "subverses" on Voat) similar to a bulletin board system. Voat was a site which hosted aggregated content and discussion forums. The website was widely described as a Reddit clone and a hub for the alt-right. Content entries were organized by areas of interest called "subverses". Registered users could then vote on these submissions.
Voat Inc ( / ˈ v oʊ t/ styled VOΛT) was an American alt-tech news aggregator and social networking service where registered community members could submit content such as text posts and direct links.