Steemit: Free Speech’s Ace in the Hole

We need Censorship Free Publishing, Steemit might be the solution
Imagine a social network or a news outlet no government in the world can ever shut down. All around the globe tensions against governments are rising and leaders like Donald Trump criticize mass media publicly. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now officially labeled as an enemy of press freedom. He is randomly shutting down news outlets, arresting journalists, and blocking social media services like Twitter and Facebook. Even communication tools like WhatsApp are regularly blocked in Turkey. In a world full of tensions, fake news, and power-mad leaders like Erdogan and Putin an independent and censorship free publishing platform is more important than ever.
Here is the good part, it already exists: Steemit.

User-Generated Content
The real value of social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Instagram, and Snapchat are its users. More importantly: the content all users create. Who would want to advertise on Facebook if there were no users or no user-generated content? Who would want to advertise on YouTube if there were not user-generated videos? YouTube started to reward users with shares of their advertisement revenue while Reddit also thought about introducing a fair reward system. Now think about a social media where you are rewarded for every content you create and post. The higher the quality of your content is, the higher is the possible reward. This is Steemit.

Steemit: An incentivised, blockchain-based social media platform
Steemit is a social media platform which is built upon a blockchain called Steem. Just like Bitcoin or Ethereum, Steem is a decentralized blockchain. This is a clear distinction to Facebook or Twitter: The content posted on Steemit cannot be deleted. Decentralization makes the life of leaders like Erdogan hard. Governments who regularly wish to delete content on social media networks or block them entirely now need to attack, hack, and take down millions of devices worldwide. They cannot simply charge a press agency or an office building and destroy their servers. With Steemit they need to hack an encrypted blockchain which is stored on more than 120.000 devices worldwide. Have fun when this number increases to 1 Million or even several billion.

Incentivising Great Content
The purpose of Steemit is to pay users for publishing and creating good content a monetary reward called STEEM and Steem Dollars. Steem Dollars are traded on cryptocurrency exchange platforms and they are pledged to the US Dollar. You are also rewarded for upvoting great content, validating transactions, and your long-term commitment on Steemit. Some posts on Steemit even earned as much as $15,000.

Why Incentivizing Blockchain-based News are Great
Imagine a journalist risking his own life to bring up a great story directly out of war zones. His reports are completely based on first-person observations and his images and videos are also his own property. This journalist put his own life at risk, spent a few thousand dollars, applied for tens of visas, destroyed its camera gear, was sentenced to prison for 10 days just to come up with a true, honest, and extremely valuable article or report. Steem users will value his courage and up vote his publication. Very soon this journalist is rewarded with $175,000 for his courageous dedication to disclose crime wars. Governments cannot dictate, delete or shut down this story as it is stored on a decentralized blockchain. With the earned reward journalists could possibly pay for expensive lawsuits to fight for the truth.

The Future is Blockchain-Based
Upcoming blockchain-based social media networks like Steemit will become our most important tools to obtain and preserve free speech, democracy, and privacy. Governments can easily take down content form social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The real value of giant companies like Facebook is the user-generated content. Facebook exploits their users by selling them advertisement based on their browsing behavior. Platforms like Steemit are a real chance for free speech and the creation of real qualitative content.