Censorship Rife As Bitcoin Is Booted Off Twitter

At the time of writing this, it would be impossible for me to head to Bitcoin’s official Twitter page in order to find some interesting tweets to reference. That’s because Bitcoins official Twitter account has been suspended, due to a ‘violation of Twitter rules’. You can probably work out which rules Bitcoin have allegedly broken more specifically by referring to Twitters rules yourself, but I shall warn you that it’s a long document and it’s a document that changes all the time, Twitter even admit that themselves:

“Please note that we may need to change these Rules from time to time and reserve the right to do so.”

You can read the rules and regulations for yourself, here- https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules Could the rumour mill have caused this? The rumour mill, the metaphorical home of rumour generation, much in the same way a windmill grinds wheat to produce flour, the winds of rumour spin the wings of the rumour mill, grinding down facts and speculations, producing a fine powder. The different between wheat flour and rumours however is that rumours are suitable for people on a gluten free diet. Joking aside, many people have speculated that very recently, masses of Twitter users have been reporting the Bitcoin Twitter page because of its tendency to promote Bitcoin Cash over Bitcoin Core, suggesting that actually the main Bitcoin hub so to speak has been used to push the Bitcoin Cash programme further, leaving the core group behind. This is a controversial statement but seems to ring true, if people are upset about ‘misinformation’ then they are likely to report it on Twitter. As Bitcoin itself did seem to be pushing Bitcoin Cash, which to many people is but a novelty, many Twitter users, especially those form the Bitcoin Core groups will have felt a natural sense of frustration. I’m not saying either side of the argument is right here, I’m just speculating on what could have happened. Regardless of this ‘fighting’ the important thing we need to consider is whether or not this should be considered as censorship. We know Twitter want to clamp down on cryptocurrencies, as do many of the other social networks and, since we can’t see exactly where the Bitcoin page has broken the rules, one would assume that this is censorship through an attack on the name of Bitcoin. Is this a sign of things to come? By removing the Bitcoin account, Twitter have taken a very important pin out of a network of cogs. Yes, obviously the official Bitcoin Twitter page is no longer imperative in spreading the messages of cryptocurrencies, there are many other Twitter pages out there that act as ambassadors for Bitcoin but still, it’s a very strong statement from the Twitter team. My fear is that we should expect to see this happening more often, with alt-coins taking the hit next. We will probably see Bitcoin back on Twitter very soon, but that won’t stop them from suspending the page again and again. Moreover, other coins are likely to fall victim to this censorship. Aside from running away from social networks there’s nothing we can do. Ultimately though, if we do that, we have done their job for them and the social networks have won.