It looks like YouTube is at it again. The video-streaming site owned by Google has never had an easy time with cryptocurrency – what with its tendency to randomly delete channels or content – and it seems like another occurrence can be chalked up on the company’s blackboard.
YouTube Takes Down Bitcoin.com Channel
Bitcoin.com – the website owned by Roger Ver, initially dubbed the “Bitcoin Jesus” given his early investor status with the currency – saw its YouTube channel suspended for no apparent reason only to have it reinstated later. YouTube has commented that this was only an error, but Roger Ver – the man behind the site – feels differently.
To be fair, it’s not like this is the first time this has happened. Both Google and YouTube have taken random action against cryptocurrency-based channels and videos in the past. Many were taken down in late December of last year. The strange thing was that most of the channels appeared to be small-time accounts. Only a few subscribers here and there, while other (and much larger) crypto channels – such as those operated by CNBC – remained in play.
YouTube later issued an apology and said that these content pages were taken down as part of an ongoing error with the platform’s algorithms. Executives later claimed they were working to reinstate all the material and channels that had been taken down, though analysts feel specific channels were targeted.
After receiving a notification that the YouTube channel had been taken down “for no reason” in Roger Ver’s words, Bitcoin.com filed an appeal within hours and later received notification that the channel had been unsuspended. The video-streaming platform claimed that it had been taken down as the result of an error, though Ver isn’t quite sure.
He says that right after his channel was restored, someone filed a copyright claim against his company for a video that had been up for roughly three years. He believes this is all an ongoing attempt on YouTube’s part to censor or block specific content from reaching members of the public. In a statement, he commented:
This is an ongoing headache to deal with and makes us even more eager to support censorship-resistant platforms like memo.cash and lbry.tv.
Who Is Responsible?
Ver believes bitcoin maximalists may have had something to do with the temporary removal of his YouTube account, though this doesn’t make much sense considering these maximalists are people that think cryptocurrency is stronger than any other form of money out there today. They largely believe that when all is said and done and many assets disappear in the coming years, bitcoin will remain in place. If they feel so strongly about BTC, why would they attack a channel that clearly promotes it?
The Bitcoin.com YouTube channel currently has about 40,000 subscribers at the time of writing.