Censorship of Cryptocurrency Discussions on Reddit Gets Kafkaesque
The continued censorship of cryptocurrency discussions on some of the larger sub-forums of Reddit has gotten to new levels recently. People are not only getting banned for any comment that might challenge the moderators’ enforced opinions in one forum, but complaints are also silenced in competing forums as well.
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Bans and Censorship
Another redditor was banned from r/bitcoin for no real reason, that’s nothing new. But this case was so ridicules that it caused a massive backlash and exposed the censorship of another subreddit as well. After writing about getting banned from r/bitcoin on r/cryptocurrency, the post got over 3000 upvotes and more than 1000 comments but eventually was censored itself.
And the reason he was banned from r/bitcoin to begin with? Here is what he had to say: “I’m a BTC holder and believer. recently there was a Post in the Bitcoin subreddit about the extremely low fees in the current lightning Network. OP claimed that Bitcoin with lightning has the lowest fees compared to all other alts. While I’m a strong believer in Bitcoin I also dislike the spreading of false claims about the projects I follow either good or bad. So I stated that while Lightning works amazing so far, to claim it has the lowest fees compared to all other alts is factually incorrect.”
What Can Be Done?
If you think that the censorship in any forum is overbearing and will not be changed regardless of how many people will complain, the best thing you can do is vote with your feet and leave for a place that respects your right for free speech. For talking candidly about anything related to bitcoin on Reddit this apparently means joining /r/btc, the subreddit which was created to uphold free speech and now has over 200,000 members.
And beyond just switching subreddits, this might be a good time to start thinking about migrating to other censorship-resistant platforms altogether. After all, the company itself recently shut down Darknet forums, and one can never know what topics will be included in its next crackdown. If you want to check out some on-chain social media solutions, we recently reviewed Memo and Blockpress.
What should social media users do to avoid censorship in discussing bitcoin? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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