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Popular Bitcoin influencer Anthony Pompliano announced that his YouTube account was deleted by the video streaming giant. “We just had @100trillionUSD on YouTube to discuss bitcoin and our channel was deleted,” Pompliano stated.
However, the platform has confirmed that the account has been reinstated.
YouTube has officially attempted to de-platform me from their platform.
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) October 11, 2021
They are claiming that we "encourage illegal activities" and will not be allowed to create new YouTube channels in the future either.
It ultimately doesn't matter. Bitcoin is inevitable. @YouTubeCreators pic.twitter.com/XtCtrMBH7I
Youtube says the channel is violating its policy
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YouTube stated that the account was initially deleted because of a violation of policies, but didn’t initially state which of its policies was breached. However, Pompliano argued that they had no strikes and didn’t violate any community guidelines. He added that none of his most recent videos showed any questionable content that warrants any ban.
Pompliano received an update on his Twitter account on Monday, explaining why his channel was blocked. According to the platform, his recent live-streamed interview with PlanB, stock-to-flow creator, went against the policies of YouTube. The platform claimed that the interview encouraged “illegal activities.”
Pompliano said he was about to discuss with PlanB on Bitcoin (BTC/USD), but was suddenly blocked out by YouTube. He added that the platform didn’t issue any strike as a warning for the violation. As a result, he was taken off guard by its decision.
During the ban, Pompliano’s YouTube channel was not available for about 2 hours before it was restored, with all the videos on crypto and Bitcoin restored as well. He educates crypto and Bitcoin critics via his channel.
In February last year, Twitter suspended Pompliano’s account and some other Twitter accounts. However, they were restored after few hours.
This is not the first time YouTube is banning the accounts of crypto influencers, as there have been other incidences in the past.
Pompliano added that the account has been reinstated, but YouTube did not provide any reasons or further explanations.
Some other crypto influencers also affected
The video streaming site used its algorithms labeling videos on BTC to target crypto-based content on its platform. It tagged these contents as harmful to its users. In the case of Pompliano, he reached out to YouTube’s support team immediately he noticed the ban and they replied to him within minutes.
But some other crypto-based content creators have reported similar issues but were left to wait for days. The swift response to Pompliano’s complaint is probably due to the level of influence he has in the crypto community. At the time of writing, Pomliano’s YouTube channel is verified and has over a million followers.