YouTube: Christmas Crypto Purge
On December 10, 2019, Youtube changed some of their terms and conditions, and many in the crypto community were caught by surprise. On December 24, 2019, crypto YouTubers reported their accounts had received warnings from youtube, or others were surprised with all their videos being taken off their account. Many known accounts such as MMCrypto, The Moon, Chico Crypto, and others. Some shared their notifications from youtube, messages like “Harmful Content". Today, for the most part, channels are back up again. Why would youtube take down all these channels down for 24 to 48 hours, and then put them back up? Why do it in the first place? Did they suddenly make up their mind that all this content wasn't harmful, or was it a warning on this specific content saying we are watching you? I've read people saying the crypto community is making a big fuss about this, its not only crypto channels, and yes, its now only crypto channels, but you can't blame them, if accounts about the same topic get shut down simultaneously it obviously felt like an attack.
Youtube changed the game on how we are able to access information, and it also allowed people to become content creators and share it worldwide. We currently do not have another platform that is as powerful as youtube. It has allowed us to connect from various parts of the world, sharing content, and also receiving feedback from followers. Giving people the possibility to access the content they want and create a community around it. We rely on platforms like this, that are supposed to give people the freedom to create and access the content. Unfortunately, we forget they are a company just like others, as we can see, they can set terms and conditions whenever they feel necessary. We have forgotten its someone else’s platform providing us a service, and we do not know their personal agenda.
New Youtube terms and conditions: Terminations and Suspensions by YouTube for Cause
The statement can be very ambiguous because people cant interpret it as they feel. When it comes to crypto, it hasn't had the best relationship with the government; being linked to money laundering and terrorist financing activities. Just because the government entities have stated, such a thing does not mean its right; on the contrary, it has opened a new digital financial market.
If I was a youtube content creator and my videos all of a sudden got banned, I would be freaking out. All those videos, thumbnails, and video editing are now reduced to a blank youtube page. The crypto community in particular because the content is about a revolutionary technology. Crypto stands for decentralization, no third party interference, programmable, and censorship-resistant, although cryptocurrency has come a long way since the deep web, it is still a niche, and its community is very important to keep people informed and to bring in new people. Traditional news agency, don't cover it as much or talk about it when it comes to government regulations. In addition, YouTube has the option to block certain content, and people should be able to judge for themselves. Another allegation that some have is that crypto YouTubers promote scams, and this may or may not happen, but regardless of this information is out there for subscribers to do their research.
We should be able to access the information we choose, and it’s something that can’t be taken away from us, whether its crypto content or not. Maybe its time to look into other platforms and make a massive migration.
By: Carolina Pérez
@carolinaninap