Over the last few days, one of the most trending topics for the cryptocurrency community is YouTube’s decision to censor crypto-related content on its platform, citing “harmful or dangerous content” and “sale of regulated goods.”
While the community has mostly received the news unfavorably and even suggested non-censored alternatives such as Uptrennd, Washington DC-based lawyer, Jake Chevrinsky, has provided perhaps the best legal explanation concerning the move.
For one thing, the term “sale of regulated goods,” likely suggests that the videos taken down by YouTube may primarily be classified as non-regulatory compliant.
Which United States laws might the YouTube contents be violating?
Chevrinsky wrote in a tweet:
I’m guessing the YouTube crypto crackdown has to do with potential violations of Securities Act § 17(b), the “anti-touting” provision, which requires promoters of securities to disclose any compensation they received for their promotion. I’m surprised it took this long, honestly.
— Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) December 25, 2019
Jake further argued that the platform might not have censored channels that provide valuable content concerning Bitcoin or blockchain technology.
Instead, the victimized YouTubers are those who promote crypto projects that are not compliant with U.S regulations, for instance, selling tokens that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) outrightly defined as securities.
In context, such promotions are regular features of such crypto-related videos, and although the provide an avenue for channel operators to monetize their channel, they often do not disclose compensation that they received from their backers.
In the past, the U.S SEC has fined celebrities such as Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled for similar offenses, meaning that YouTube could come under pressure from the regulator for hosting such videos on their platform.
Ultimately, the way out for crypto YouTubers would be to port their loyalty to other decentralized content-sharing platforms or continue riding the censorship wave.
