Unsplash.com: Jievani Weerasinghe
Owners of the official Bitcoin account are pleading with YouTube to reinstate their channel after the site terminated it for being “harmful and dangerous.”
Bitcoin spoke out about the situation in an April 8 post on X, showing two screenshots of separate emails sent to them from YouTube.
“We reviewed your channel carefully, and found that it violates our harmful and dangerous policy,” YouTube’s message reads. “We know this is probably disappointing news, but it’s our job to make sure YouTube is a safe place for all. …we won’t be putting your channel back up on YouTube.”
The Bitcoin team submitted an appeal, which was addressed by YouTube in the second screenshot. Citing a previous appeal, the website denied Bitcoin’s request for reinstatement, asking them to “look at the email we sent previously for additional details.”
Bitcoin rallied against YouTube’s “harmful and dangerous” label, claiming their content has been centered on unproblematic “education, wallet tutorials, and objective news” since 2015.
YouTube deleted our channel for being "harmful and dangerous."
Our content since 2015: #Bitcoin education. Wallet tutorials. Objective news.
YouTube's content: crypto scam ads running 24/7 with zero moderation.
Appeal rejected. No strikes. No explanation. Just an algorithm that… pic.twitter.com/YvEsk8vc7J— Bitcoin.com (@BitcoinCom) April 8, 2026
In comparison, they accused YouTube of running “crypto scam ads 24/7 with zero moderation.”
“Appeal rejected,” they wrote on X. “No strikes. No explanation. Just an algorithm that can’t tell a 10-year-old company from an actual scam. YouTube — can we get a human, or do we need to buy an ad first?”
The only crypto-related activity outlined in YouTube’s policy on harmful or dangerous content is ‘cryptophising,’ defined by the platform as “requests for cryptocurrency or cryptocurrency-related wallet details as a part of a phishing scheme.”
Other prohibited content includes more extreme or blatantly illegal behaviors, such as “instructional theft, hacking, phishing, dangerous or threatening pranks,” etc.
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Bitcoin pleads with YouTube to reinstate their channel
They went on to show screenshots of their website, where multiple YouTube embeds of their content were now showing error messages for unavailable videos.
“The broken embeds on our website and app are leaving millions with the impression Bitcoin itself is a scam,” Bitcoin continued. “YouTube, we’re trying to believe this is a mistaken policy, not malice — but creators like BTCsessions, LukeMikic21 and many others have seen this pattern before.”
The broken embeds on our website and app are leaving millions with the impression Bitcoin itself is a scam. @YouTube we're trying to believe this is mistaken policy, not malice — but creators like @BTCsessions, @LukeMikic21 and many others have seen this pattern before. pic.twitter.com/8lO0h3SOkw
— Bitcoin.com (@BitcoinCom) April 8, 2026
Thus far, Team YouTube hasn’t provided a public response to Bitcoin’s X posts, with some viewers wondering if AI wasn’t behind their channel’s deactivation.
YouTube has been using AI to moderate content on its platform, leaving many creators frustrated. Despite this backlash, YouTube’s CEO has confirmed the company will continue to use it, saying AI will “make our ability to detect and enforce on violative content better, more precise, able to cope with scale.”
