TL;DR: At approximately midnight PST, the @Bitcoin Twitter account began deleting dozens of tweets, pruning anti-Bitcoin maximalist posts and pro-Bitcoin Cash related sentiment. It even changed its link to the Bitcoin White Paper. Curiously, as of publication, a pro-Bitcoin Cash video remains pinned to the account, and no official announcement has been made about @Bitcoin possibly trading hands. Here’s what we know.

@Bitcoin Twitter Account Deleted Tweets, New Link

Long-standing anonymous @Bitcoin Twitter account traces its roots to Summer of 2011, 8 years almost exactly to the present date. Over that time, @Bitcoin gathered nearly 1 million followers, and it has been the subject of very public battles over its favoring of Bitcoin Cash, including tussles with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

Around midnight PST, the Crypto_Deleted_Tweets account began forwarding @Bitcoin tweet deletions, which have come in batches. “It goes in waves because of Twitter rate limitation,” Crypto_Deleted_Tweets told CoinSpice. “Looks like they are wiping everything.” Well, not everything. Posts in favor of Bitcoin Cash, or ones critical of BTC maximalists, are being systematically taken down.

“It seems the purge has stopped for now,” Crypto_Deleted_Tweets posted more than an hour after the deletions began. “Twitter has rate limit when it comes to deleting tweets though. Could resume later, let’s see. Seems most deleted tweets were attacking Jack or Lightning.”

A Hint of Things to Come

A hint of things to come might’ve taken place when an 11 day-old tweet by the @Bitcoin account, involving a news article about the advent of a Bitcoin Cash SLP token exchange, was the first to be deleted. Not long after, dozens of pro-Bitcoin Cash tweets were systematically purged, going back 10 months. Even links to articles covering various controversies involving @Bitcoin were being taken down. The account also unfollowed roughly half of its previous number, and nearly all of those are thought to be pro-Bitcoin Cash personalities or sites. The @Bitcoin link to the White Paper was changed from Bitcoin.com to Bitcoin.org.

Confusingly, or perhaps overlooked, is a Bitcoin Cash explainer video pinned to the top of @Bitcoin — it remains, at least for the moment. And what would Crypto Twitter be without conspiracy theories? They abound, of course, with some speculating this to be payback for a few in the Bitcoin Cash community jokingly linking Dorsey romantically with Lightning Labs’ CEO Elizabeth Stark. Others believe the account could’ve simply been hacked, while still more think the account’s popularity and its high Google SEO ranking results were too much for pro-BTC folks to handle, and so they intervened (Dorsey is very pro-BTC and openly hostile to Bitcoin Cash).

Whatever the actual case, the @Bitcoin account has been a fount of controversy since it came out in support of Bitcoin Cash. At various points in its recent history especially, it claimed to be shadow-banned by Twitter. There’s also an open precedent of BTC maximalists lobbying corporate minders in favor of censorship, fueling rumors an @Bitcoin purging was the result of a coordinated campaign.

Considering Dorsey’s support for BTC, and his investment in companies tied to its growth, should Twitter be so actively involved in an account with a different point of view? is a question those who are unconcerned with the Bitcoin Cash/BTC feud are asking. But that assumes @Bitcoin was forcibly handed over through corporate Twitter. As of this writing, there isn’t any evidence either way. CoinSpice reached out to Jack Dorsey for comment, but at the time of publication received no response.

DISCLOSURE: The author holds cryptocurrency as part of his financial portfolio, including BCH.

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