When Reddit cracked down on some of its most controversial communities, thousands of users searched for a new digital refuge. What they found was Voat, a small platform built by Atif Colo and Justin Chastain. As it happened before with other platforms embracing free expression, with freedom came online extremism.
Atif Colo and Justin Chastain
There is very little known public information about Atif Colo and Justin Chastain, other than their respective online handles: Atif Colo’s was known online as Atko, while Justin Chastain as PuttItOut. Their backgrounds are not known, and there aren’t any online public pictures of them as well.
The lack of verifiable information is itself notable: it suggests deliberate opacity, which is common among founders of fringe or “alt-tech” platforms seeking to shield personal identity.
From WhoaVerse to Voat
Voat began in April 2014 under the name WhoaVerse as a hobby project by Atko, then a college student. The platform aimed to offer an online discussion space with minimal content restrictions, positioning itself as a “free-speech” alternative to mainstream sites. In December 2014, WhoaVerse was rebranded as Voat, with a goat as its mascot and with a more user-friendly name.
Atko later invited Justin Chastain to join the project as co-founder.
The publicly available corporate details show that although Voat initially had a Swiss base, the project was incorporated in the United States in August 2015. According to Colo, this was because they believed U.S. free-speech law better aligned with Voat’s principle of minimal content restrictions.
Voat's Philosophy and structure
Voat’s structure was very similar to Reddit: users could submit posts (links or text) and vote them up or down, and discussions were organized by themed categories called “subverses” (analogous to subreddits) rather than user-centric profiles.
The defining principle was minimal moderation: Voat marketed itself as a place where “no legal subject… should be out of bounds,” emphasizing “freedom of expression and speech.” This model attracted many users disaffected with perception of censorship on mainstream platforms.
The migration from Reddit
In 2015, when Reddit banned several subreddits for harassment and hate speech (including some with large followings), many users left Reddit in protest and migrated to Voat. These migrations followed the bans on the threads focusing on Pizzagate, incels, and the QAnon conspiracies. This influx caused a sudden surge in traffic that overloaded Voat’s servers.
However, this popularity triggered resistance from infrastructure providers. In June 2015, the German hosting service Host Europe cancelled its contract with Voat, citing “politically incorrect” content, effectively cutting off web hosting without warning.
Atko claimed the decision lacked transparency and affected even unrelated private servers he was operating at the time. Voat responded by migrating to a cloud-based hosting solution and soliciting donations (via PayPal and cryptocurrency) to keep afloat.
The change in leadership
In January 2017, Atif Colo resigned as CEO, citing lack of time to devote to the project. Justin Chastain replaced him as CEO.
Under Chastain’s leadership, Voat continued to operate despite ongoing financial difficulty and repeated infrastructure challenges. The site became increasingly associated with extreme content, conspiracy theories, and communities banned on other platforms.
The shutdown
On 22 December 2020, Chastain announced that Voat would shut down because its main investor had defaulted earlier in the year (March 2020), leaving the project without funds. Chastain said he had been funding Voat personally after the default, but could no longer continue. Voat officially shut down on 25 December 2020.
In his shutdown statement, Chastain expressed nostalgia, calling Voat “the most dysfunctional family on the internet,” and saying he had tried “meditation, prayer … reaching out for help” to salvage it, but ultimately failed due to financial constraints.
Why Voat matters
Voat represents a wave of “alt-tech” platforms that surged when mainstream social networks adopted stricter moderation policies. It served as a refuge (voluntary or otherwise) for users banned elsewhere. The founders’ approach with minimal moderation and maximum free-speech rhetoric influenced later platforms that marketed themselves similarly (for example, “free speech” social networks).
The technical and organizational challenges faced by Voat underlined the difficulty of sustaining “free speech, minimal moderation” platforms at scale, especially when hosting providers or payment processors refuse involvement. Ultimately, the data archive from Voat (submissions, comments, user interactions) remains a resource for researchers studying deplatforming, echo-chambers, toxicity, and the migration patterns of controversial communities.