PeerTube is a video platform that works without central control. Instead of one big company that manages everything, PeerTube consists of separate servers that are each managed by different people or organizations. These servers are also called instances. Anyone can start an instance themselves and determine what is and is not allowed there.

The servers can work together. This allows users to watch videos from other servers as if they were in one place. This works via a technique called federation. The underlying protocol for this is ActivityPub, the same as with other decentralized networks such as Mastodon.