Every time you visit YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, or Google Maps, you’re feeding behavioral data to surveillance capitalism platforms. LibRedirect is a browser extension that automatically redirects URLs from these platforms to privacy-respecting, open-source frontend alternatives — without any manual effort on your part.

What LibRedirect Does

When you click a YouTube link, LibRedirect silently redirects it to Invidious — an open-source YouTube frontend with no tracking, no ads, and no Google account required. The same applies to dozens of other platforms:

Original Platform	Privacy Frontend
YouTube	Invidious, Piped
Twitter/X	Nitter
Reddit	Redlib (formerly Libreddit)
Instagram	Proxigram
TikTok	ProxiTok
Wikipedia	Wikiless
Medium	Scribe
Google Maps	OpenStreetMap
Google Translate	Lingva Translate
Genius (lyrics)	Dumb
Quora	Quetre
Stack Overflow	AnonymousOverflow
IMDb	LibreMDB

Installing LibRedirect

LibRedirect is available for Firefox, Chrome, and all Chromium-based browsers.

Firefox

Install from the Mozilla Add-ons store:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/libredirect/

Chromium / Brave / Edge

Install from the Chrome Web Store or load the unpacked extension from the LibRedirect GitHub repository:

https://github.com/libredirect/browser_extension

Initial Configuration

After installation, click the LibRedirect icon in your toolbar to open the settings panel.

Enabling Services

Toggle on each service you want redirected. Common choices:

YouTube → Invidious ✓
Twitter → Nitter ✓
Reddit → Redlib ✓
Google Maps → OpenStreetMap ✓
Google Translate → Lingva ✓
Medium → Scribe ✓

Instance Selection

Each service has multiple public instances run by volunteers. LibRedirect lets you choose which instances to use.

Recommended approach: Use the Random Instance option to distribute requests across multiple instances, reducing dependence on any single server.

For services you use frequently, add multiple trusted instances:

For Invidious (YouTube):

https://inv.nadeko.net
https://invidious.fdn.fr
https://vid.puffyan.us

For Nitter (Twitter):

https://nitter.privacydev.net
https://nitter.poast.org

For Redlib (Reddit):

https://redlib.catsarch.com
https://redlib.privacydev.net

Click the Test button next to each instance to verify it’s online before adding it.

Advanced Settings

Whitelist Exceptions

Sometimes you need to access the original site — for example, to log into your own YouTube channel or post to Reddit. Add exceptions in Settings > Exceptions:

youtube.com/studio
studio.youtube.com
reddit.com/submit

These URLs bypass LibRedirect and go directly to the original site.

Redirect Only on Click

By default, LibRedirect redirects all matching URLs including those loaded in iframes and background tabs. If this causes issues, enable “Only redirect when clicking a link” to limit redirects to user-initiated navigation.

Dark Mode Support

Most LibRedirect-supported frontends have dark mode available. LibRedirect passes a dark mode preference parameter to frontends that support it — enable this in the extension settings for each service.

Setting Up Local Instances

For maximum privacy and reliability, run your own frontend instances locally using Docker.

Invidious (Local YouTube Frontend)

git clone https://github.com/iv-org/invidious
cd invidious
docker compose up -d

Access at http://localhost:3000. Then add http://localhost:3000 as your Invidious instance in LibRedirect.

Redlib (Local Reddit Frontend)

docker run -d -p 8080:8080 quay.io/redlib/redlib:latest

Access at http://localhost:8080 and configure LibRedirect to use it.

Running local instances means zero network requests to the original platform — even the frontend server never sees your IP.

Using LibRedirect with a VPN

LibRedirect and a VPN complement each other well:

VPN hides your IP from the frontend instance operator
LibRedirect prevents the original platform from seeing your requests entirely

The combination means neither the original platform nor the frontend instance knows who you are or what you’re watching.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Instance is down: Click the reload button in LibRedirect settings to refresh the instance list. Remove dead instances and add fresh ones from the official lists at farside.link.

Redirect loop: Some browser extensions (ad blockers, other privacy tools) can conflict with LibRedirect. Check for exceptions in your ad blocker for localhost or your chosen frontend domains.

Video playback fails on Invidious: Try a different Invidious instance. YouTube frequently changes its API, and some instances take longer to update.

Nitter 401 errors: Twitter has aggressively blocked many Nitter instances. Use the Farside proxy at farside.link/nitter/ which automatically routes to a working instance.

Farside: A LibRedirect Alternative

Farside (farside.link) is a redirect service that acts as a frontend load balancer — append a path to farside.link and it routes you to a working instance:

https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
https://farside.link/nitter/username
https://farside.link/redlib/r/privacy

You can use Farside URLs in LibRedirect’s custom instance fields to always get a working instance automatically.

Privacy Benefits Compared to VPN Alone

A VPN protects your IP address but does nothing to prevent the platform from tracking you via cookies, accounts, and behavioral fingerprinting once you’re connected. Privacy frontends like those LibRedirect routes to:

Strip tracking parameters from URLs
Do not load Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or other trackers
Do not require accounts or cookies
Do not report watch history or browsing behavior back to the platform

Final Thoughts

LibRedirect is one of the highest-impact, lowest-effort privacy tools available. Once installed and configured, it works invisibly — you click links as normal and automatically end up on private frontends instead of surveillance platforms. Combine it with uBlock Origin and a VPN for a browsing experience that leaks almost nothing to the major data brokers.