Cryptocurrencies and bitcoin exchanges are still a rather new phenomenon. Many people keep on trying to understand the purpose of cryptocurrencies, the technology behind them, and how they could disrupt the existing world.
When something is new and unclear, the primary reaction is usually trying to pretend that it doesn’t exist, and it seems like this is a strategy YouTube tried recently. This caused many crypto lovers to raise awareness about the video platforms, as many started to fear that crypto content would disappear from YouTube for good.
If you try to search terms such as “cryptocurrencies” or “bitcoin,” you will still find plenty of content. Nevertheless, recent events might indicate that the situation is about to change. So, what really happened?
YouTube removes crypto content from popular channels
The year 2019 is recognized good for the crypto community, as Bitcoin and many altcoins managed to stabilize their prices (at least compared to 2018, which was a real rollercoaster). Moreover, the overall state of affairs in the crypto industry improved. However, one day before Christmas, at the very end of the year, YouTube decided to take action against some of the crypto channels and flagged their videos as “harmful and dangerous content,” removing them from the public.
Some of the channels that had their content removed include Chris Dunn, BTC Sessions, and more. YouTubers were surprised by this sudden turn of events and decided to make it public.
YouTube was quick to react, stating that there was some kind of misunderstanding and that they made a wrong decision. Some videos took days to reinstate, and YouTubers responded in a negative manner, accusing YouTube of various things.
YouTube has been quite active lately, deleting thousands of videos
One of the reasons why such a mistake could happen is that YouTube was changing some core Terms of Service. This change was made in order to separate adult content from kids-oriented content. However, that’s not the only change they made, resulting in many cryptocurrency enthusiasts being afraid that crypto-related content would be deleted as well.
Chris Dunn’s theory
Chris Dunn is currently leading a very popular channel on YouTube which is simply called “Chris Dunn”. The channel is mainly aimed at audiences who are looking for various ways to improve their investment skills, meaning cryptocurrencies are often discussed in Dunn’s video. In fact, Dunn’s set of videos titled Bitcoin Basics are one of the most popular tutorials about Digital Gold on YouTube right now.
Therefore, it was only natural that Chris Dunn was one of the loudest people when it comes to YouTube’s unexpected actions that resulted in the deletion of crypto videos.
According to Dunn, the ToS update that YouTube released officially on December 10 contains numerous red flags. However, he points out the part where the platform reserves the right to terminate creators that are not “commercially viable”.
Other crypto channels support Dunn
Apart from Dunn, Chris Coney’s The Cryptovers was also affected by the purge conducted by YouTube. Coney also reported that he has received an email with a notification about his videos being taken down.
Crypto Tips creator Heidi also tweeted about a similar issue, and so did a lot of other crypto content creators.
Many of them support Dunn in his endeavor, and are eager to “unite against censorship.” Dunn’s story has reached many popular crypto-related news outlets which reported on this particular set of events and spread the word about YouTube’s actions. Moreover, even some non-crypto newspapers covered the story.
Solution? Decentralized video platforms
Just like many crypto and blockchain enthusiasts, Dunn understands the way centralization takes its toll, especially when it comes to giants such as YouTube or Facebook. It’s only natural that he doesn’t trust the platform anymore and is looking for a viable alternative. Although his channel is still pretty much active on YouTube, he said his goodbyes in a video called “Goodbye YouTube – Let’s Unite Against Censorship.”
There, he said all things that made him think twice about his career as a YouTuber and invited all other crypto enthusiasts and followers of his channel to search for decentralized alternatives where commercial control will not be possible.
Are crypto YouTubers really going to migrate?
Despite the fact that not many of them are happy with some of the previous events, they still have to play by the rules imposed by YouTube. The digital giant is still unparalleled in offering video-sharing.
On the other hand, other projects that are based on the blockchain technology and aim to disrupt content-sharing still need to undergo mass adoption. Simply put, everyone’s watching YouTube right now, and not many people care about decentralized alternatives at the moment.
Conclusion – Crypto content is here to stay
Although YouTube made a couple of bad decisions that they apologized for, the crypto community on the platform is still not the desired content. Although people like Dunn pointed out some of the problems that may arise in the future, the crypto community will not be devoid of great crypto content.
Even if YouTube decides to ban that for some reason (although we cannot think of a reason that would be legitimate), crypto content creators are just going to go to other platforms and work there.
Therefore, to answer the topic question — the era of crypto channels on YouTube will not end yet. As long as they do not go against the rules, they should be safe from now on.
On the other hand, the right question is this — is YouTube the best possible platform for video sharing (or any other kind of content sharing for that matter)? There are a couple of projects that aim to provide a fairer and better service that will stand in the way of corporate greed. However, blockchain-based projects still have a long road to travel before they get anywhere near YouTube in terms of popularity.
