Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) video platform YouTube is taking down cryptocurrency-related videos from its platform, including the ones which don’t violate its community guidelines, the cryptocurrency community is alleging.
What Happened
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Multiple users across social media, including on Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter Inc.’s (NYSE:TWTR) platform alleged that their videos were removed from the platform starting Monday.
“YouTube just removed most of my crypto videos citing ‘harmful or dangerous content’ and ‘sale of regulated goods.’[It's] been 10 years of making videos, 200k+ subs, and 7M+ views. WTF are you guys doing [TeamYouTube?],” Chris Dunn, a prominent cryptocurrency content creator, said on Monday.
.@YouTube just removed most of my crypto videos citing "harmful or dangerous content" and "sale of regulated goods"... it's been 10 years of making videos, 200k+ subs, and 7M+ views. WTF are you guys doing @TeamYouTube?! pic.twitter.com/MPcKbBVrC4
— Chris Dunn (@ChrisDunnTV) December 23, 2019
Multiple other users followed with similar comments. According to a list compiled by YouTuber Omar Bham, at least 25 cryptocurrency channels have been affected by the alleged ban.
Updated list (it's growing fast) pic.twitter.com/STyni4IkqV
— Omar Bham (Crypt0) (@crypt0snews) December 24, 2019
Bham said on Twitter that YouTube could be just taking down videos that had “links to external websites/exchanges in video descriptions.” Other users said that YouTube isn’t even sparing private videos.
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TheQuartering, a content creator on the platform with over 630,000 subscribers, said that YouTube is looking to wipe out competition with the recent ban.
“They fear it. They're trying to squash it. And they are trying to do it under cover of Christmas,” TheQuartering said in a video posted on Tuesday.
YouTube’s Response
YouTube said on Twitter that it is looking into the reports.
“We've seen a few similar reports, we'll pass yours along too and get back to you when we have an update. Appreciate your patience in the meantime,” YouTube said in response to a Twitter user.
Community Calls For A ‘Decentralized’ Platform
The cryptocurrency community on Twitter called for the creation of a “decentralized” social media platform, while others asked users to move to existing blockchain-based platforms.
“It may be time the [cryptocurrency] community take a stab at its own blockchain-enabled [censorship-resistant] social media platform,” Chanpeng Zhao, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange desk Binance, said on Twitter on Wednesday.
“Lots of challenges, though, spam, scam, trolls, incentives, copyright, token economics, governance, stickiness, privacy, [but it’s] about time!
Earlier this month, Twitter announced that it is working on a decentralized social media standard.