At long last, Youtube has issued a comment on the harrowing crypto crackdown that has transpired over the past week.
In a press comment given exclusively to industry news outlet Decrypt, the Youtube hosting giant, operated by Alphabet/Google, claimed that the dozens of Bitcoin- and cryptocurrency-related videos it struck down earlier this week was an “error.” The spokesperson cited the “wrong calls” that Youtube can make due to the “massive volume of videos” that exist on the site:
“With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When it’s brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it,” they said to Decrypt.
It was added that Youtube made no explicit changes in their policies to warrant the crypto blackout that was seen and, as such, the videos were “reinstated” without penalty to the affected channels.
Youtube’s clarification on the subject matter comes after some of the largest crypto content creators, including names like DataDash and Boxmining, saw their channel receive strikes and warnings for purportedly publishing “harmful and dangerous” content that promoted the sale of “regulated goods.”
Crypto Youtube Channels Restored
While it wasn’t clear if exactly Youtube was rolling out these corrections at first, reports have started to roll in of affected channels getting their strikes and other restrictions revoked, seemingly manually, by Youtube and its staff.
Omar Bham (Crypt0), who feared that he would have to stop publishing crypto-related content to his following of tens of thousands posted the tweet below, confirming Decrypt’s report. Dozens of other creators followed suit.
Warning Removed! YouTube Apologizes & Crypto Videos Are Returning To YouTube!https://t.co/C7bxhKOgIl
— Omar Bham (Crypt0) (@crypt0snews) December 26, 2019
Many creators have been celebrating by, well, publishing videos with their reinstated privileges. There seem to be a few creators still affected, though the trend suggests that all issues should be resolved shortly.
More To The Story?
While Youtube has seemingly been above board in reinstating the videos, claiming that this whole debacle was just an unfortunate mistake, some still assert that there’s more to this case of censorship than just an “error.”
Kim Dotcom, the prominent Internet entrepreneur behind MegaUpload (a service which now has him under fire from authorities) and digital privacy activist, remarked that he believes Youtube is forcefully cutting off content creators at the beck and call of the U.S. government. Dotcom continued:
US Empire won’t allow anything to undermine its control of the financial system, incl mass surveillance, market manipulation via money printing and sanctions. Fight back.
YouTube is cutting off crypto content creators. The US govt is behind this. The war against crypto has begun. US Empire won’t allow anything to undermine its control of the financial system, incl mass surveillance, market manipulation via money printing and sanctions. Fight back.
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) December 26, 2019
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