Mailchimp, an email marketing service provider, has been suspending cryptocurrency content.
Didi Rankovic of Reclaim the Net noted that “These deplatforming decisions are affecting individual creators and media.” Rankovic added that “apparent policy Mailchimp is implementing is not new.”
One of Mailchimp’s deplatform victims was Messari, “a leading provider of crypto market intelligence products.” In a tweet, Messari sarcastically thanked Mailchimp for deplatforming several prominent brands in the cryptocurrency space.
Some of them included Edge, a cryptocurrency wallet, and Decrypt, a cryptocurrency news website. “You’re proving our point,” Selkis stated. “Mailchimp – and all speech censors – must be destroyed.”
Mailchimp has apparently suspended these accounts usually without providing prior warning and any explanation. Mailchimp’s behavior here is akin to Big Tech’s censoring and deplatforming of people who dare speak out of line.
NTF collection Cartoon Goonz founder Jesse Friendland revealed on Twitter that when he was deplatformed from Mailchip’s services earlier in August the email marketing provider emailed him stating that the company cannot let businesses use its platform if they are engaged in “the sale, transaction, trading, exchange, storage, marketing, or production of cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies, and any digital assets.”
There’s also significant speculation about the latest wave of censorship being connected to the US government’s recent move to Tornado Cash.
Paul Puey, the founder of Edge, believes that this is unlikely owing to the public and transparent nature of email that doesn’t make it a suitable vehicle for illegal activity.
Instead, Puey believes that there is probably an influential figure working for Mailchimp who has an axe to grind with cryptocurrencies. Puey is of the view that Mailchimp’s deplatforming actions are “incredibly short sighted.”
Some of Mailchimp’s other victims are creators such as NFT artist Ocarina who revealed its ban from the email marketing provider’s services on August 1. In this instance, Mailchimp did provide an explanation for the move. Ocarina was informed that its content connected with “the (NTF) industry” butts heads with Mailchimp’s Acceptable Use Policy.
As of August 11, 2022, Mailchimp hasn’t responded to Decrypt’s inquiries thus far. When it was slapping bans on cryptocurrency accounts back in 2018, the company claimed that information about cryptocurrencies isn’t “necessarily” banned. However, it stressed that emails from those involved in “the production, sale, exchange, storage, or marketing of cryptocurrencies” are.
Public vs private partnership dichotomies are outdated in the present context we live in. Many private institutions will gladly carry out the powers that be’s agenda by censoring private companies and individuals. The cryptocurrency space clearly challenges the fiat money industrial complex, which makes it an easy target for the ruling class and its private sector lackeys.
As cryptocurrencies grow more prominent, we can only expect further action — both corporate and government — against this sector.