TL;DR: After years of complaining about censorship and related techniques employed against the @Bitcoin account on Twitter, it appears more direct evidence has emerged. In a now deleted exchange, analyst Zack Voell, of purported objective and transparent research outfit Messari, mistakenly disclosed a private conversation. Voell asks CEO Jack Dorsey to “end” the @Bitcoin handle, to which Dorsey responds, “What do you recommend we do with it?” CoinSpice reached out to @Bitcoin, asking for reaction.

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@Bitcoin Censorship: Absurd and Downright Dystopian

“This situation is not only absurd,” @Bitcoin told CoinSpice Executive Editor Hayden Otto about discovering the private exchange between a Messari employee and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, “it’s downright dystopian. On one side you have all the BTC maximalists on Twitter rallying to defend @hodlonaut against those who would silence him, and then those same people immediately turn around and form a mob that openly wants my account deplatformed and silenced. Why, because I point out the flaws of BTC? Because I don’t shill their bags?”

In recent weeks, the broader crypto community took up the cause of troll @hodlonaut due to a cease and desist letter threatening legal action if the space cat avatar continued poking at leaders of other coin projects. Many threw themselves in front of the controversy, claiming they were @hodlonaut, we all are @hodlonaut. At least one self-imposed martyr was served with a formal lawsuit.

“On the other side you have Jack Dorsey,” @Bitcoin explained to CoinSpice. “Based on Tweets he’s made we know he is no fan of BCH. There is an apparent conflict of interest here: Is he trying to silence my account because I’ve broken the rules, or is it because he’s part of the same BTC maximalist mob that cheers for censorship of any critical voices? The fact that he is one of the main financiers of Lightning Labs speaks volumes. If BTC was a functional P2P electronic cash system, or if Bitcoin Cash manages to become the dominant cryptocurrency, then there is no reason for people to use Lightning.”

Another anonymous account, and sometime critic, @CobraBitcoin, chided Messari’s Voell, explaining, “It’s bad etiquette to share private messages.” Voell responded minutes later, “You’re right. Deleted, and I regret sharing it.” While some in the crypto universe have claimed @Bitcoin is paranoid or exaggerating censorship threats and conspiracy, the exchange between Voell and Dorsey does appear damning, and at least puts into question Messari’s objectivity and Twitter’s supposed lack of censoring ambition. This isn’t the first time @Bitcoin has provided evidence of outside attempts at slowing the account’s influence, as CoinSpice previously documented.

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