YouTube has suspended the YouTube channel of Ripple CTO, David Schwartz. Interestingly enough, this comes only a week after the blockchain unicorn filed a legal suit against the video-streaming giant over XRP giveaway scams.
David Schwartz Suspended From YouTube
In a two-part Twitter thread sent out on Wednesday, Ripple’s David Schwartz revealed that YouTube had suspended his channel which goes by the name “SJoelKatz”. Schwartz noted that YouTube cited impersonation as the reason for suddenly suspending the channel.
This means he is banned from “accessing, possessing or creating any other YouTube accounts”.
It should be noted that YouTube reserves the right to suspend channels that it feels are in violation of its set guidelines, including content that is spam or is of a harassing nature. Content creators on the platform are, however, given a chance to appeal if they believe their channels were wrongfully suspended.
Schwartz has been posting content on his channel for a couple of years now, so it does raise some questions on why he was just suspended. Is it just a coincidence or is YouTube hitting back at the company for the recent lawsuit?
Ripple’s Lawsuit Against YouTube
Just a little over a week ago, Ripple announced that it had decided to sue YouTube on claims that the video-streaming platform had failed to stop fake XRP giveaways that had resulted in innocent victims losing significant amounts of money. Moreover, Ripple asserted that these scams are tainting the reputation of Ripple as well as that of the CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
The suit further noted that other social media platforms like Instagram were also witnessing an increased number of scammers trying to dupe users, but the lawsuit was primarily filed against YouTube because it was simply the “slowest to respond and the least proactive”.
Just Another Case Of YouTube’s Crypto Purge?
Notably, YouTube has been terminating channels in recent months including honest channels promoting educational cryptocurrency content. By the end of December last year, YouTube had censored at least 25 crypto YouTubers.
This year has not been any different. This month, well-known technical analyst Tone Vays was suspended for what YouTube termed as “harmful and dangerous content”.
Clearly, YouTube has been having a field day suspending cryptocurrency-related channels in the past. As such, it remains unclear whether David Schwartz was just another victim of the unfortunate crypto purge or it has something to do with Ripple’s recent legal action against YouTube.
