Youtube has begun removing various crypto related content, causing the cryptocurrency influencers to give their opinion on the subject. YouTube, a prime video platform, has embarked a massive purge of videos concerning crypto or digital currencies. According to Twitter posts made by some of the most famous cryptocurrency influencers, the attack was launched on December, 23. With YouTube suddenly deleting crypto videos without any feasible explanations.



On Monday Chris Dunn, host of the ChrisDunnTV (210,000+ subscribers), found that YouTube had deleted all his content concerning cryptocurrencies. His post on Twitter reads:

“@YouTube just removed most of my crypto videos citing ‘harmful or dangerous content’ and ‘sale of regulated goods’…”

On December, 24, the shutdown of Crypto Beadles, another Youtube channel, followed. ”@YouTube @YTCreators has shut us down for a while.” its host Robert Beadles said. ”Guess free content and never taking a penny for any content is bad? We’ll post on my Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram going forward all accounts are under Robert Beadles there. God Bless #censorship #youtube #bitcoin” Although the channel is back on track now, some influencers haven’t been as lucky.



Ivan on Tech, whose channel has over 210,000 subscribers, has been forced to set all his videos to private in order to avoid the ban. Omar Bham (@crypt0snews) posted a list of YouTubers whose content has been recently banned from the platform.



Why Is Youtube Removing Crypto Content?

YouTube has not yet provided any explanations as to the reasons for deleting crypto-related content. This led to different assumptions and speculations among YouTubers, one of them being ”links to external websites/exchanges in video descriptions”, as it is stated by Omar Bham. He may have a point. Rachel Siegel, who manages a YouTube channel Crypto Finally said, that her channel has successfully avoided the raging banhammer. It is interesting to mention, that she never referenced external websites or exchanges, except the link to Coinbase, which she removed later.



Reports on Twitter show that the ban tide continues. @TheMoonCarl has recently announced, that YouTube has removed one of his videos from January 2019, because it “broke the rules”, being “Harmful and dangerous content”.





Interestingly, @TeamYouTube answered to Bham’s tweet showing the ban list of cryptocurrency influencers, saying, that YouTube will investigate the matter and notify the community about the results. However, no notifications have been posted so far. ”Team YouTube last updated us by linking to the regular YT community guidelines, and a reminder that we can appeal videos with a strike.” Bham commented. ”Several YouTubers appealed, and had their appeals rejected, with no clear reason again as to why the video directly violated guidelines.”

Crypto Content Sharing Alternatives?

Now crypto influencers are looking for other content sharing platforms, particularly for blockchain-friendly social media. One of the most appealing choices — LBRY, which also supports monetization of the content. This is crucial for most YouTubers, since they are fully engaged in the streaming

Despite all the advantages, some influencers note that decentralized platforms, such as LBRY, put certain limitations on their audience. ”While these platforms do solve the issue of censorship and takedowns of our content, it unfortunately still does limit our audiences.” explains Siegel of Crypto Finally.

Apart from that, there are many other problems to be solved, such as privacy rights, copyright protection and others.