In 2019 new media companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter have been flirting with censorship. If the United States is about free speech and capitalism, you wouldn’t know it by the advertising friendly moves these super platforms make.

The same thing happened to me on Medium, months after accusing the platform of censorship against crypto products, ICOs, and blockchain startups, I was myself banned from the site. But Silicon Valley deciding what’s safe, what’s misinformation or good public information has not stopped. On YouTube, it’s increased.

YouTube in late 2019 has aggressively been deleting crypto influencers and ICO content from its super platform. Based on Twitter and Reddit threads, YouTube suddenly began deleting a number of cryptocurrency videos on Dec. 23. YouTube has been accused of unfair activities towards creators all through 2019, but this is ramping up its censorship policies to a new level.

From Facebook deleting the like to this crypto purge on YouTube, these moves always profit the advertising revenue of these new media platforms, while trying to degrade the influence of influencers and creators. I agree with CNN’s headline here that YouTube’s Crypto Xmas Purge is a tactically evil powerplay. Google is no longer an ethical company and how it treats its community displays this in full force.

Silicon Valley Censorship Begins

While I agree that many ICOs and crypto products (or lack thereof) are scams, prone to fraud, pyramid systems, and securities that are liable to regulation by the FTC, a lot of creators depend on the livelihood of talking about these projects, aren’t prone to misinformation and deserve freedom of speech about their interests.

While the world slept on Christmas Eve, the YouTube team was busy carrying out a mass deletion of cryptocurrency videos. YouTube has not yet released a public statement on why they are banning crypto-related content. It’s systematically also deleted posts about cryptocurrencies. This is really concerning for what advertising platforms are becoming.

The lack of communication from YouTube has left influencers to speculate on the reason for the sudden crackdown. YouTube has strict policies and it’s enforcing its rules more aggressively. The mass deletion may be related to YouTube going after crypto channels with any links to external websites/exchanges in video descriptions.

If platforms like Medium and YouTube practice censorship though, what is the point of using them? We will simply switch to channels where we can find content on these topics that it deems a violation of its rules and terms. Interestingly enough, while some YouTube channels have not yet been censored by the platform, reports continue to flood Twitter on channels that have been impacted.

Crypto Content as Dangerous or Harmful

Still, it’s regrettable to see YouTube, more or less a democratic platform, become a place where censorship exists. California has too much power on new media policies that favor its own forms of regulation (basically a lack of regulation). Numerous content creators in the cryptocurrency space were issued with community guideline strikes which judged their videos as “harmful or dangerous content”. Masses of crypto videos were unceremoniously deleted in one fell swoop.

Although YouTube is ranked as the second most popular social media platform, with over 1.9 billion users, crypto influencers are looking for other platforms to share their content. If free speech no longer exists on mainstream platforms where advertising is king, they become less useful for niche interests like game streaming, crypto and other younger/fringe interests.

This also shows how Google is unfairly a law unto itself. Companies like Medium, Twitter and Google have very specific ideas of what is harmful, misinformation or fair content for creators and influencers. The internet was supposed to be a free place, where debate and innovation was possible but companies like Google and Facebook. it would appear, are now at “war” with influencers, the very creators that make YouTube and Instagram relevant.

The problem is there aren’t really mainstream real alternatives to YouTube, as Google has a monopoly on this sector as well. You might have heard of decentralized content platforms such DTube, Steemit, Minds, LBRY, Bitchute & Bittube and so forth, but probably not! If crypto is banned on Medium and YouTube, crypto enthusiasts will go elsewhere. That’s a lot of people who are interested in alternatives and new ways of thinking about value, digital assets, and decentralized products that are a direct threat to the centralized vision of companies like Google and Facebook, who own sprawling new media platforms that control the internet.

As someone who has sometimes made my living supporting blockchain startups, how companies like Medium and YouTube enforce their policies seems brutal and unfair. It also shows a somewhat deceptive approach. The timing of YouTube’s coordinated attack on the cryptocurrency space betrays part of its motive. By striking at the cryptocurrency space during the busiest time of the year, YouTube apparently hoped to minimize any pushback.

YouTube is Getting a Bad Rep

YouTube’s treatment of creators betrays a somewhat disrespectful mindset. Advertising over people, censorship over freedom, control over innovation – this is leading to anticompetitive and antitrust violation practices. Google is in serious trouble, as I think FTC probes and EU investigations will show. Facebook, Google and maybe Amazon deserve a reckoning for how much power they have gained and the arbitrary activities of their self-serving moves.

Deleting crypto influencer content goes much further than crypto Ad bans. Does this mean Google is creating its own crypto clone like Libra? Who knows? And how did Google become the evil empire? They were supposed to be the good guys.

When Silicon Valley becomes known for censorship, the enforcement of anti-free-speech moves and creating their own rules for what the future of media looks like, we are in trouble. In 2020, we have reached that point. A crypto purge is not protecting the public, it’s controlling the narrative of the future. It’s also an anti-competitive practice that favors its own platform which has become increasingly common among digital advertising players.

Despite the doom and gloom, YouTube’s attack on crypto had the unintended result of bringing the community together. How long before crypto companies and brands are banned from Twitter? New media platforms play by their own rules.