Tyler Winklevoss, a cryptocurrency and Bitcoin investor and entrepreneur, makes no attempt to hide where he stands on yet another highly charged and divisive topic: the coronavirus epidemic and its consequences, including on free speech and the economy.
Winklevoss, co-founder and CEO of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, went to Twitter with some harsh words, denouncing YouTube and its role in this massive crisis.
Not only is YouTube censoring what Winklevoss calls legitimate discourse about how efficient the lockdown policy has been – “what makes it even worse is that YouTube is one of the rare companies that stands to benefit from it,” he writes.
As things stand, the only publicly beneficial “legacy” the likes of Google and Facebook will leave behind is to distrust Big Tech and the system that spawned them and allowed them to become some of the most powerful entities on the planet.
Oh – and let’s not forget the tracking apps and tech they will now donate to the authorities to better control – coronavirus, of course. Not the population.
Not surprisingly, most of those commenting on Winklevoss’ tweet went to the same place all frustrated users and observers of YouTube go nowadays: looking for alternatives.
Some are doing it ironically, suggesting that Winklevoss should build a better YouTube – and then sell it to Zuckerberg (a business model of all-too many supposedly innovative startups, that don’t even bother turning a profit but are merely building a userbase large enough to attract the giants’ attention and end in an acquisition.)
And of course, nobody rational is happy that private corporations have now taken it upon themselves to decide what’s right or wrong, true or false, all the while growing to be “more powerful than governments.”
In the past, Winklevoss criticized YouTube for silencing Dr. Knut Wittkowski, an epidemiologist who is critical of the lockdown policy as a way to fight coronavirus.
