YouTube continues to ban crypto content; No one knows the reason!

Apart from the devastating crash that Bitcoin is currently facing, another potential threat to the pioneer cryptocurrency and the entire crypto industry at large is censorship from giant tech companies like YouTube. 

In a recent bout of censorship, two separate crypto YouTube channels had videos deleted temporarily. 

The two YouTubers who had their videos deleted include Ivan on Tech (a crypto programmer) and The Moon (a crypto reporter and technical analyst). 

Both responded to the matter via twitter saying that they had received several strikes from YouTube about Bitcoin being “harmful content.”

YouTube’s history of censoring crypto content

YouTube has a long history of censoring crypto content.

At the tail end of 2019, many crypto YouTubers including seasoned content creators like Nicholas Merten received content strikes from YouTube despite not uploading videos for days. 

In a tweet, Merten said,

In response, The MoonCarl also replied in a tweet that acknowledged a similar move by YouTube on his channel.

Other channels like Nugget News received up to two content strikes in a single day with 50 videos being removed from the channel.

Saunders, the owner of Nugget News, expressed fears of the channel getting deleted from YouTube in a tweet that read,

Also affected was a Canadian Bitcoin educator with a channel called BTCSessions and Chriss Dunn a crypto and finance reporter. 

Following the crypto purge of 2019 on YouTube, an outrage emerged on twitter  to which YouTube replied saying that the decision to ban Bitcoin and cryptocurrency videos from its site was an ‘error’ and the removed videos would be reinstated.

Finding a reason for the purge

It might be argued that the move was meant to protect consumers from scams. 

However, for most onlookers as well as the entire crypto community, the move does not make any sense especially since Google and Facebook already lifted the crypto advertising ban in 2018.

Invezz asked Mati Greenspan, the founder of Quantum Economics, about his opinion on whether the current bout of crypto censorship is as a result of the company's hidden agenda or the result of an internal error.

In his reply, Greenspan said that “it is difficult to know for sure but many in the community feel that the censorship is international”.

He adds,

While speaking to Decrypt, a YouTube spokesman said,

However, with recent reports indicating a continuation of the crypto ban on YouTube, the reasons for deletion crypto-related videos remains to be anyone's guess.

Seeking alternatives

While YouTube hasn't responded to the recent bout of censorship and why it's still affecting crypto-related channels, some on twitter have suggested moving crypto content to decentralized platforms that are censorship-resistant. 

In reaction to last year's crypto purge on YouTube, Greenspan together with several crypto YouTubers moved to boycott YouTube.

This time around, when asked whether there are any other viable decentralized alternatives for crypto YouTubers, Greenspan replied, 

Weighing in on the matter, Chris Burniske, a renowned crypto influencer, tweeted that such violations by companies like YouTube, “will push suppliers and consumers away from platforms and towards protocols”.

Burniske also added that since platforms like YouTube are owned by shareholders and “give no governance rights to suppliers and consumers and further centralize economic resources over time,” the violations crypto YouTubers are facing currently are “bound to repeatedly occur”.

To sum up...

Censorship on platforms like YouTube has existed for a long time. While there are many theories on twitter explaining the reasons for the latest censorship bout, it is clear to most like Burniske that this will not be the end of it. Platforms like YouTube face pressure from different governments, advertisers, and organizations to remove a wide range of content. Perhaps it's time for the crypto community to create their decentralized alternatives much like how Everipedia is disrupting the Wikipedia formula without the use of advertisement.