YouTube briefly blocks cryptocurrency channel over ‘encouraging illegal activities’

YouTube briefly blocked the cryptocurrency-focused channel Altcoin Daily. Access to it was restored after a few days.

On July 31, brothers Aaron and Austin Arnold announced on their Twitter page that their channel had been blocked. The reason given was “encouraging illegal activities”. The brothers filed an appeal and noted that they had never urged viewers to commit unlawful acts.

URGENT! YouTube has just terminated our channel claiming that we were “encouraging illegal activities”!

We are a news/opinion channel! We have never promoted anything illegal!

Appeal has been submitted. @TeamYouTube Please review this!

Plz RT! HELP!https://t.co/o5GAKLXTBc

— Altcoin Daily (@AltcoinDailyio) July 31, 2020

In response, YouTube’s support team urged bloggers to await the outcome of the appeal, without elaborating the detailed reasons for the block.

One subscriber pointed out that YouTube’s leadership does not take sufficient measures against fake videos about crypto giveaways. Another user attached a video promoting one of those videos.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention – you can improve your ad recommendations with these steps: https://t.co/BTZi9ZAda1. Let us know if you have any other questions.

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) August 1, 2020

YouTube’s support, in response to this, advised him to adjust his advertising settings, offering no comment on the misleading nature of the clip.

Today, August 3, the brothers announced that the channel had been unblocked and thanked the community for its support.

UPDATE: Altcoin Daily is back!!!

Thank you #crypto community for your massive support! It truly did not go unnoticed.

Our daily video’s resume tomorrow! See you then!https://t.co/o5GAKLXTBc

— Altcoin Daily (@AltcoinDailyio) August 3, 2020

This is not the first time YouTube blocks cryptocurrency-related channels. In mid-June the platform blocked the account of the cryptocurrency information portal Bitcoin.com.

In April, YouTube deleted the channel of the well-known crypto trader Tone Vays. After a wave of outrage on social media, the channel was restored.

At the end of July, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak joined a class-action lawsuit against YouTube and its parent company Google. The reason was fraudulent videos promoting Bitcoin giveaways using his name.

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