Oh, Google… Why does your relationship with bitcoin and cryptocurrency have to be so convoluted and messy?

Google Goes After Another Crypto Application

Google Play has decided to act against a bitcoin-based application known as Bitcoin Blast. The company delisted it, claiming that it was giving rise to “deceptive practices,” only to reinstate it a few days later.

Amy Wan – the chief executive officer of Bling, the company behind the app – initially reached out to Google to question what their motivation was, though it appears little data has been given regarding the company’s decision, and neither entity – Google or Bling – is offering comment regarding why the game has suddenly been placed back in the store.

Wan explained:

We did inquire after resubmission, but never received a response as to what Google Play perceived as deceptive… We’d like to thank our users who came out and supported us. We were absolutely overwhelmed by their response.

Despite being placed back in the Google Play store, Bitcoin Blast has lost its previous rankings, though it has managed to retain its more than 20,000 ratings from past and present users.

This isn’t the first time Google has seemingly taken quick (and unclarified) action against bitcoin and crypto-related content or applications. A similar story occurred in the beginning of January when Google decided to remove the Ethereum-based application Meta Mask from its store.

The company believed that the cryptocurrency app was potentially mining digital assets, though this later turned out to be incorrect. Meta Mask was immediately reinstated about a week after it was removed.

Perhaps the biggest action taken against crypto by Google occurred in late December of last year. Just after Christmas of 2019, many YouTube (owned by Google) account holders that posted bitcoin or crypto-related content on their channels reported that the video streaming website was targeting their material and suspending or cancelling out their accounts.

While many users pressed both Google and YouTube for answers, very few were given. What was particularly strange was that the removals seemed to occur with only smaller channels, while larger ones like those of CNBC could remain operational. Many, including “Crypto Trader” host Ran NeuNer, believed this was terribly unfair.

It’s Time to Fight Back

Ran later commented:

YouTube deleting all crypto content is a massive blow to the industry. YouTube is the go-to place for educational videos and the first port of call for new people entering the ecosystem to learn the basics. As a community, we should challenge this formally.

YouTube later commented that the targeting of crypto channels had occurred simply due to a glitch and that the affected content would soon be reinstated, though not much has been heard about that since. Either way, there’s some pretty hardcore fixing to be done from what’s being deemed a little “glitch.”

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