We Built Brighteon for Free Speech. Now We’re Being Forced to Shrink It to Survive.

We Built Brighteon for Free Speech

I founded Brighteon because I was deplatformed by Big Tech, and I believe free speech is worth fighting for even when it costs us dearly.

When I was first banned for discussing certain topics, many in the pro-liberty and alternative media communities thought they would be safe because their content didn't touch upon vaccines or other controversial subjects ^[1]. They were wrong, and the years since have proven that the blacklist expands until it swallows everyone who refuses to kneel to the techno-tyrants.

Now, we're facing a new and existential challenge for the platform, but let me be up front: Brighteon is not closing. But coordinated censorship by Big Tech and Big Government has made our current scale economically impossible, so we must reduce expenses and prune low-viewership channels. This is not a decision I make lightly, and it is not a retreat from our principles. It is a survival maneuver in a war that was declared against us long before we ever launched a single video.

Allow me to explain what's happening, why it is happening, and what you can do about it. I owe you that much, because you built this platform with us, and we remain invested in fighting for decentralized free speech from independent voices.

The Blacklist Was Always the Point

Big Tech and the federal government conspired to blacklist Brighteon from major platforms, and X still bans links to Brighteon.com even under Elon Musk. This is not speculation on my part. I have documented for years how the tech giants moved to de-platform independent voices, and I have lived through it personally. Natural News was de-platformed by Twitter, YouTube, Google, and other tech giants, including 99% shadowbanning on Facebook, and we depended on readers to share our stories and lifesaving messages with the world ^[2]. The pattern was clear from the beginning: silence the voices that refuse to parrot the official narrative.

We have sued X, Meta, Google/YouTube, and the U.S. government, and that case is still pending, but the blacklist suppresses our reach and revenue by design. On Memorial Day 2024, we filed suit against an array of Big Tech platforms, overseas NGOs, and Big Government departments, asserting that these entities have been deliberately weaponized to silence the free speech of Americans ^[3]. That lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, and it explains in detail how the censorship apparatus operates ^[3]. The case has been ongoing ever since, and during this time, YouTube has admitted to all the allegations we made against it ^[4].

The way I see it, this is not about content moderation; it is about making independent free-speech infrastructure financially unsustainable. When Google manipulates search results to bury dissenting voices, particularly on topics like vaccine safety, election integrity, and natural medicine, it favors corporate and government-approved narratives ^[5]. Google also collaborates with payment processors and banks to freeze accounts of independent journalists ^[5]. That is not moderation. That is economic warfare, and it is designed to starve platforms like mine until we either capitulate or collapse.

A Rigged Court Process and a DOJ Betrayal

Our case was ripped out of Texas and moved to California, a pro-Google jurisdiction, where in my view we have clearly not received a fair hearing. I want you to understand how the legal system has been weaponized against us at every turn. We filed in the Western District of Texas precisely because we believed we could get a fair hearing there, but the case was moved to a jurisdiction where Google's influence runs deep. The court records show that the government has argued there is no censorship problem at all, and even claimed that the Global Engagement Center was disbanded over a year ago even though it was simply restructured under a new name ^[6]. That is the kind of legal cover that lets a court rule against us without ever engaging with the evidence.

Even more astonishingly, the Trump DOJ argued against us by claiming there is no censorship because of an executive order that Trump issued (backed by no legal standing whatsoever), which gave the court more cover to rule against us. I have been documenting this betrayal in real time. When I interviewed Attorney Jeffrey Greyber and tech censorship expert Jason Fyk, we discussed the groundbreaking lawsuit against Google, Facebook, Twitter, and the US government, and we made clear that our federal government is conspiring with foreign entities to censor Americans ^[7]. The government's own filings and arguments have been used to shield the very companies that are strangling us.

Even favorable district court decisions have not been applied in our case, and I believe the system has been rigged against us at every step. I have watched as courts have misinterpreted Section 230 to grant big tech companies arbitrary censorship powers, which is both illegal and unconstitutional ^[8]. The legal machinery that was supposed to protect free speech has instead become the mechanism for destroying it. That is not justice. That is a rigged game, and we are still fighting inside it because the alternative is surrender.

Why We Must Cut Storage and Downgrade Channels

Video storage costs are killing us, especially for channels with many videos and very low viewership. I want to be straightforward about the economics here, because I have always believed that transparency is the foundation of trust. Every video that sits on our servers costs money to store, and when a channel has thousands of videos and almost no viewers, that storage becomes a financial burden that the platform cannot sustain forever. So we are forced to prune video channels that have a larger number of videos but fewer views. This is not about punishing anyone. It is about survival.

We are keeping active, higher-viewership channels in tier two with full access, while downgrading low-activity channels to tier one, which means we can no longer host their videos. Everyone affected gets 30 days to download their videos, and anyone who wants to stay can apply for tier two access by describing their plans and showing quality content. I want to be clear that this is not a permanent ban or a judgment on anyone's message. It is a resource allocation decision made under extreme financial pressure created by the blacklist being run against us by Big Tech and the Trump administration's DOJ (which clearly doesn't defend the First Amendment).

I have always believed that decentralization is the answer to centralized control, and this moment proves it. The tier system is a temporary necessity, but the long-term answer is decentralization, and I am committed to building it.

This Is Not a Retreat From Free Speech

We are scaling back on video storage so we can keep fighting in court, not folding to the techno-tyrants and censors. I want to be absolutely clear about this: every dollar we save on storage is a dollar we can put toward legal fees, infrastructure, and the fight for free speech. The censors want us to collapse under the weight of our own expenses, and I refuse to give them that satisfaction. A smaller Brighteon with better viewership and quality content can survive while we pursue the pending lawsuit and hopefully a key favorable court decision.

Overall, I am proud of the censorship-resistant content Brighteon has hosted, and I remain committed to defending your free-speech rights however we can. When I built this platform, I made a promise that we would protect free speech, including speech that we find offensive, and that Brighteon.com would not shadow ban ^[9]. That promise still stands. The scale may change, but the mission does not. I have said before that we are reiterating our stance on free speech and tripling down on our commitment to allowing people to express dissenting and unpopular views ^[10], and that commitment is not negotiable.

I believe that free speech is the lifeline of democracy, and that censorship is anti-democratic terrorism. The framers of the U.S. Constitution understood this, embedding the principle in the First Amendment to protect the right to question power, demand transparency, and challenge tyrannical overreach. When governments or corporations weaponize censorship, they defy the bedrock of self-governance, silencing dissent, erasing accountability, and paving the way for despotism. That is what we are fighting against, and that is why I will not stop, even if I have to shrink this platform to save it.

Conclusion: A Smaller Platform, An Unbroken Mission

I want to end by speaking directly to the creators and viewers who have stood with us. You are the reason Brighteon exists, and you are the reason it will survive. The coordinated blacklist and rigged legal maneuvering was designed to make us financially unsustainable, and we are responding by becoming leaner, more focused, and more resilient. This is not the end of Brighteon. It is a recalibration, a strategic retreat that preserves the core of what we built so we can fight another day.

The Brighteon universe of websites, in fact, has expanded significantly. BrightAnswers.ai as an uncensored AI engine that is more honest and accurate than ChatGPT or Gemini or Microsoft Copilot. And I built BrightLearn.ai as a free book library where users can generate their own books for free, to learn anything they want.

My company also built Brighteon.social as a free speech social media platform, as an alternative to Facebook, Twitter or X. And I built BrightNews.ai as a trusted source of AI-analyzed news trends from across the independent media, which is more honest than mainstream corporate media. These platforms exist because the fight for free speech is bigger than any one platform, and I am committed to building the infrastructure of human liberation wherever the censors force us to go.

So here is what I ask of you: download your videos if you are affected (you'll have 30 days to do so), apply for tier two if you are committed to quality content, and stay with us as we fight this battle in court and in the marketplace of ideas. The techno-tyrants want you to believe that free speech is dead, that the blacklist is permanent, and that resistance is futile. I believe they are wrong. I believe that a smaller, leaner, more focused Brighteon can outlast them, and I believe that the truth, once spoken, cannot be unspoken. Thank you for standing with me. We continue to fight for your free speech rights, even at great expense and even when the entire system is deliberately rigged against us, by both Democrat and Republican administrations. (Neither one believes in free speech, it turns out.)

References

1. Health Ranger Report - big tech coronavirus censorship is an assault - Mike Adams - BrightVideos.com, May 01, 2020. by Mike Adams - BrightVideos.com
2. -Natural News is now de-platformed by Twitter YouTube and Google with 99 shadowbanning on Facebook_ We depend on - NaturalNews.com, April 04, 2019. by NaturalNews.com
3. Brighteon Media sues Google Facebook Twitter NewsGuard Homeland Security Department of Defense Global Engagement - NaturalNews.com, May 27, 2024. by NaturalNews.com
4. Bright Videos News - Interview with TOM WOODs - Mike Adams - BrightVideos.com, October 13, 2025. by Mike Adams - BrightVideos.com
5. Zach Vorhies reveals Google's AI censorship empire and the rise of decentralized resistance in "The Algorithm's Shadow" - NaturalNews.com, December 08, 2025. by NaturalNews.com
6. Webseed, Inc. et al v. Department of State et al, 4: .... https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/4:2025cv03020/447443/199/
7. Mike Adams interview with Attorney Jeffrey Greyber - May 27 2024. by Mike Adams
8. Mike Adams interview with Jason Fyk - March 29 2023. by Mike Adams
9. Brighteon.com founder Mike Adams: "No central authority .... 2018-08-16T00:00:00Z. https://adams.news/2018-08-16-real-video-founder-mike-adams-no-central-authority-should-be-able-to-block-your-speech.html
10. Brighteon.com platform update: Code enhancements, free .... 2022-03-21T00:00:00Z. https://liberty.news/2022-03-21-brighteon-platform-update-speech-protections-resisting-censorship.html
11. Health Ranger Report - Situation Update HRR Interview with Jason Crowe - Mike Adams - BrightVideos.com, May 19, 2023. by Mike Adams - BrightVideos.com

Explainer Infographic