The blogging site Medium has become a popular site for crypto enthusiasts to discuss virtually anything related to crypto and blockchains. Every day, a number of insightful blog posts can be found there, leading to increased dialogue and greater distribution of information about the spaces. However, Medium has taken sides with companies such as Google and Facebook, and is cracking down on crypto-based blogs.
Over the course of the past week, it has come to light that Medium has begun to suspend a number of blogs related to cryptocurrency projects. There has not been a formal post by the site about the ban, but there is evidence to support the belief that the bans are tied to posts about bug bounties or airdrops.
The Ethereum-based messaging platform Status wrote a few days ago, “Medium is currently one of the primary communication channels of the cryptosphere. Blockchain-based visionaries, both affiliated with projects and independent free-thinking technologists, have all made Medium a critical part of how they communicate. Recently, we attempted to publish a blog post announcing our latest Bug Bounty Program. The post was immediately suspended, followed by an automated email noting a general violation, without detailing any specifics, and a link to Medium’s recently updated policy regarding cryptocurrencies.”
The author of the blog entry continued, “Though we had not violated any of these policies, we re-submitted several revisions that carefully edited out any potential trigger words, like ‘bounty’, ‘ETH,’ and ‘SNT’. The post was never successfully published.”
That was on June 15. This week, the Medium page for Blockchain.io was temporarily suspended, but has since been restored. The last post published prior to the suspension discussed an airdrop; however, when the blog was put back online, that post was mysteriously absent.
Status concluded its blog entry by writing, “We worry that the seemingly arbitrary decision to suspend our blog is a sign of a troubling trend. We’re concerned about the creeping censorship around cryptocurrencies. We want our society to be freer for everyone. We believe the forces of censorship and centralization often are closely bound and we worry when we see the power to freely express ourselves so arbitrarily limited.”
I believe virtually everyone in the crypto space would love to hear the opinion of Medium’s founder Evan Williams. Mr. Williams, the ball is in your court.
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