Google’s YouTube Goes To War With Bitcoin And Crypto

Google's relationship with bitcoin and cryptocurrency has long been fraught but it has apparently just taken a turn for the worse.

The search giant has previously banned bitcoin and cryptocurrency ads, deciding to allow them again in September last year after three-month block.

Now, Google has decided to remove hundreds of bitcoin and cryptocurrency videos from its video-sharing site YouTube in what's being called a "crypto-purge"—leaving many who make bitcoin and cryptocurrency-related videos feeling unfairly targeted by the search giant.

Google's YouTube video-sharing platform is the world's biggest video website, with 300 hours of ... [+] content on everything, including bitcoin and cryptocurrency, uploaded every minute.

The YouTube crypto-purge appears to only be targeting smaller channels and publishers, with crypto-related videos from the likes of bitcoin and crypto news outlet CoinTelegraph and U.S. business news publisher CNBC escaping the cull.

One YouTuber Chris Dunn, who has some 210,000 subscribers on the platform, asked YouTube for an explanation via Twitter.

"YouTube just removed most of my crypto videos citing 'harmful or dangerous content' and 'sale of regulated goods,'" Dunn wrote, adding he's been making videos on the platform for 10 years and built up 200,000 subs and 7 million views.

The number of videos targeted by Google's YouTube is well into the hundreds and "growing fast."

Some in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry have vowed to challenge the decision.

"YouTube deleting all Crypto content is a massive blow to the industry," Ran NeuNer, host of the CryptoTrader show on CNBC Africa, said via Twitter.

"YouTube is the go to place for educational video and the first port of call for new people entering the ecosystem to learn the basics. As a community we should challenge this formally."

Meanwhile, others have been searching for a reason for the purge, finding YouTube's citing of "harmful and dangerous content" unsatisfactory.

"So far Alphabet [Google's parent company] has made no attempt to explain the reasons for the culling," Mati Greenspan, the founder of research group Quantum Economics, wrote in a note.

"The first instinct that many had was that perhaps they're trying to protect the consumer from scams. However, this wouldn't make much sense given that Google and Facebook have already had a crypto advertising ban last year that has long since been reversed, likely due to regulatory clarity in the U.S. where it was found that bitcoin and ethereum are neither securities nor scams."

Greenspan added he is now "officially boycotting YouTube" due to the crypto-purge.

Google, along with the likes of social media giant Facebook, has been increasingly looking to financial services to bolster advertisement revenue in recent years, with public opinion moving against ad-funded business models.

Last month, Google, in partnership with U.S. banking giant Citigroup, said it's planning to launch its own fully-fledged "smart checking" bank accounts via Google Pay–piling pressure on bitcoin developers to improve user experience and adoption or face redundancy.

Meanwhile, the bitcoin price has climbed this year, largely due to interest in bitcoin and crypto from the world's biggest technology companies–with others, including the likes of iPhone-maker Apple and online retailer Amazon, branching out into traditional financial services.

The bitcoin price has stagnated recently after surging higher earlier in the year though it remains ... [+] around double where it began 2019.

Trump criticizes Pelosi

Trump lambasted the move to impeach him as “phony" and a “HOAX,” tweeting just as Pelosi was delivering a weekly news conference on Capitol Hill – an indication he may have been watching her remarks.

“Pelosi feels her phony impeachment HOAX is so pathetic she is afraid to present it to the Senate, which can set a date and put this whole SCAM into default if they refuse to show up!” Trump wrote, accusing House Democrats of being a “Do Nothing” party.

“The Do Nothings are so bad for our Country!” Trump wrote.

Trump was reacting to comments made by Pelosi on Wednesday evening — just after the Democrat-controlled House approved articles accusing the president of abusing his power and obstructing Congress almost strictly along party lines — suggesting the House may wait to deliver the articles to the Senate.

Democrats have expressed skepticism that the GOP-controlled Senate would present a fair and impartial trial.

Connected Vehicle Cloud on top of Microsoft Azure platform

Ericsson’s Connected Vehicle Cloud is a popular connected car platform that is already powering 4 million vehicles across more than 130 countries. Today, Ericsson announced that it will be building Connected Vehicle Cloud on top of Microsoft’s Connected Vehicle Platform.

Microsoft’s Connected Vehicle Platform is not a car operating system, but rather delivers the back-end to allow automakers to address key scenarios such as predictive maintenance, improved in-car productivity, advanced navigation, customer insights and help building autonomous driving capabilities, leveraging Microsoft’s computing cloud to ingesting huge volumes of sensor and usage data from connected vehicles, and then helping automakers apply that data in powerful ways.

Ericsson said that its Connected Vehicle Cloud solution on top of Azure will allow automakers to deploy and scale global vehicle services such as fleet management, over-the-air software updates and connected safety services much easier and faster while reducing costs. It also offers flexibility through modular design and multiple deployment options.

“The Ericsson and Microsoft partnership will deliver a comprehensive connected vehicle platform at scale to the market. Our integrated solutions will help automotive manufacturers accelerate their global connected vehicle solutions and offer a better experience for drivers and passengers,” says Åsa Tamsons, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Area Technologies & New Businesses. “This is an exciting new offering with great benefits for the automotive industry, leveraging Ericsson and Microsoft’s technology leadership in connectivity and cloud.”

Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President, Business Development at Microsoft says: “Together with Ericsson, we intend to simplify the development of connected vehicle services to help car makers focus on their customers’ needs and accelerate the delivery of unique, tailor-made driving experiences.”