Pro-Trump protesters outside the Capitol in Washington DC -

Phil Mcauliffe / Polaris / Starface

  • DLive, a Twitch competitor who pays its users through donations, is increasingly attracting an extreme right-wing audience banned from other platforms, according to our partner DNA.

  • The broadcast on DLive of the storming of the Capitol by pro-Trump supporters brought together nearly 150,000 "spectators".

  • One of the platform's co-founders today regrets having taken advantage of the massive arrival of far-right streamers to consolidate its growth.

On Wednesday January 6, 2021, the world was able to follow almost live

via

media and social networks the capture of the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump.

A large majority of the public was present on

CNN

- which achieved its audience record with nearly 30 million people - or on Twitter.

But a smaller and more discreet platform also had its moment of glory with nearly 150,000 visitors.

This is DLive, a streaming site similar to Twitch and on which it is possible to broadcast live videos filmed with your smartphone.

2,000 dollars won by ransacking the Capitol

According to the

Washington Post

which reports the story, a DLive user, Tim Gionet, therefore streamed the storming of the building in front of 16,000 people.

Tim Gionet is not a journalist: the user was a rioter who was chatting live with his audience.

Among the topics discussed?

The best tactics for avoiding police roadblocks, for example.

His fans were also very generous by giving him during this

live

 nearly 2,000 dollars.

Nine other accounts have also broadcast their actions live within the building, including Murder The Media, an account affiliated with the neofascist group “Proud Boys”.

Screenshot of the interface of DLive, the streaming platform competing with Twitch © 20 Minutes

DLive, refuge of the far right

Created in 2017 by Charles Wayn and Cole Chen, two former students of the University of Berkeley (California), DLive has become one of those alternative networks hosting members of the American far right when they are kicked out of YouTube or Twitch.

In 2019, the platform temporarily hosted conspiratorial radio host Alex Jones.

Very popular with white supremacists, DLive also hosts antivax channels or peddling false information about the Covid-19 pandemic.

Our "Twitch" folder

In a statement, DLive said it was freezing the income of streamers who broke into the Capitol.

However, the platform has taken advantage of the massive influx of far-right streamers (and the calls for violence that go with it) to ensure its growth over the past two years.

A strategy that its founder, Charles Wayn, today calls "error".

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The original article was written by David-Julien Rahmil and published on the DNA website.

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