TikTok’s policy change hurts cryptocurrency creators

If Lucas Dimos gets another deleted video from TikTok, he suspects he will be kicked off the platform forever.

In the past month, at least 10 of his videos have been removed for promoting illegal activities and regulated products. But Dimos, who posts content to a TikTok account called theblockchainboy, says he hasn’t done anything wrong.

“It left my account on a razor’s edge,” Dimos said. “We are dying here. We are floundering. We have tried to build a community and to steer this whole movement in the right direction.”

TikTok cryptocurrency content creators like Dimos, who claim they are just trying to educate consumers in the emerging market, say they have been hit hard by the rapid changes in the social media company. In July, TikTok implemented a system capable of automatically blocking videos that violate its policies, and the company recently updated its branded content policy, banning the promotion of financial services, including cryptocurrencies, to unless users disclose it through an in-app branded content option.

CNBC spoke to 11 cryptocurrency creators for this story who say they have posted educational crypto videos, but their content is flagged or permanently removed with little explanation from TikTok. Some said their accounts were also temporarily banned more frequently. Most influencers CNBC spoke to said they haven’t been paid to promote any crypto content on TikTok in recent weeks, and that video views and new subscribers have declined since July.

TikTok declined to comment on the creators’ reports. Instead, a spokesperson directed CNBC to the company’s community guidelines page. The spokesperson did not specify which guidelines the crypto creators were violating.

When videos are pulled from TikTok, creators say they get a notification that they’ve broken community guidelines. Sometimes he notes that they have posted content related to “illegal activities and regulated goods”. The guidelines haven’t been updated since December, although TikTok rolled out its new detection feature just over a month ago, when the creators said withdrawals stepped up.

Some of the creators CNBC spoke to are considering moving to platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook’s Facebook, and the Discord chat app, where they say they have more freedom to share content.

“The real problem isn’t the ads,” said a cryptocurrency influencer named Wendy O. “It’s the fact that TikTok bans and censors creators of crypto content and a lot of us. publish excellent educational articles. “

Creators CNBC spoke to said the recent updates are warranted to tackle spam accounts or fraudulent money-making schemes such as “carpet draws,” where individuals entice them. users to buy crypto, raise the price, and opt out. But they say the system overcompensates and affects those who are just trying to educate their audience about crypto.

“It was almost like a knee-jerk reaction from TikTok against all these scams that were going on,” said Dimos, who has more than 314,000 subscribers on the platform. “Although they may have blocked the fraudulent messages, all of us, the creators, cannot post any of our content.”

In recent weeks, the creators have said they can’t use words like “Binance,” “decentralized finance,” or specific coins like bitcoin or ethereum in a video without being deleted. The consensus among the creators is that these words alert the algorithm, resulting in automatic removal or examination. Analyzing charts and forecasting is also signaling the system, according to creators like Timothy, who uses cryptoweatherman on TikTok.

Under its community guidelines, TikTok says it will remove content “including video, audio, live streaming, images, commentary and text” in violation, and that it uses a “mix technology and human moderation “to enforce its guidelines even before content is flagged.”

If a video is deleted, the user is usually notified that the post violates a community guideline or relates to “illegal activities and regulated goods”. But the post doesn’t offer details, the creators said. Creators CNBC spoke to said if they got two videos deleted, they were banned from posting content for at least 24 hours. Bans can last from a day to a week, said creators CNBC spoke to.

TikTok’s guidelines state that users are notified when content is removed and that they can appeal the removal if they “believe no breach has occurred.” The company also says it will suspend or ban accounts that are repeatedly “involved in serious or repeated violations” and that they will take into account “information available on other platforms and offline in such decisions.”

When creators contact TikTok about an account ban or a deleted video, most say they were either ignored or received an automated response. There’s no phone number to call, no rep to email, yet some creators say that by appealing the takedown, TikTok is reinstating many videos.

Joshua Thillens, who goes by Joshua Jake on TikTok, says he’s had at least eight videos deleted. When CNBC spoke to Mason Versluis, a creator with nearly 430,000 subscribers on an account called cryptomasun, he was on a 48-hour ban, preventing him from posting.

Before the change of directive, Versluis had removed a video showing a car accident. In recent weeks, he said between 30 and 35 of his videos have been deleted. Most were reinstated after he appealed.

“I don’t claim to be a financial assistant or a financial advisor or even a trader,” Versluis said. “I’m just someone who has been in crypto for four years. I have studied this in depth and the information I bring and the opinions should speak for itself.”

Many creators also say that views and subscribers have slowed in recent weeks, and subscribers say creators are not showing up on their “For You” pages. TikTok’s community guidelines state that the business may limit a post’s visibility in search results and other feeds.

Mack Lorden, who has more than 102,000 subscribers on TikTok, says he quickly built his following when he launched his platform in January. But he “hit a bottleneck” last month, a change he attributes to both the change in policy and falling prices in the crypto market.

Smaller creators like Miguel Morales, who has just over 5,200 followers on his account called blockchaincrusader, are also feeling the pinch. Morales says the number of views on good videos has increased from almost 100,000 to 10,000. On good days, he’s lucky to have over 1,000 views.

Nick Dye, who has more than 14,400 followers on his account called the_cryptokeeper, said he was steadily getting 300 to 400 followers per day in the first few months after his account launched and after posting a viral video . He said the number of new subscribers increased from hundreds to maybe three or six a day after the policy change. His first 12,000 subscribers he says he got in just 25 days. The last two thousand took double the time.

“Nobody knows what they can and can’t say,” Dye said. “It discourages new creators like me who have the knowledge and experience they can offer. We are afraid to share things for fear of being banned.”

In the weeks since the changes, creators say they’re getting creative with the content they publish. Wendy O. recently posted a series of videos referring to cryptocurrencies as keto. Dye calls Ethereum his “girlfriend”. Carla Nasui and Walker Van Dixhorn, known as The Crypto Couple, have always used comedy to discuss crypto, a setup they say has kept them from being banned. Morales went from three videos a day to just two.

Some creators CNBC has spoken with have done sponsored content in the past and say they can make anywhere from $ 300 to $ 20,000, depending on their subscribers. This payment is sometimes made in cryptocurrencies.

Versluis has partnered with DAO Maker, a crowdfunding platform that also serves as a launching pad for certain cryptos, and IOI, one of the cryptocurrencies launched through it. Wendy O. has created content for a platform involved in crypto lending called Celsius.

Some also make money through paid Discord subscriptions and one-on-one investing sessions. But all of the creators polled by CNBC said they create most of their content for fun or to educate the masses and never explicitly tell users to buy a part.

Angel Talamantes, who goes through begincrypto and has over 41,100 subscribers, admits some influencers “abused” sponsored posts and promoted projects without doing their research before the changes.

“A lot of influencers who have huge audiences don’t really know what they’re promoting,” he said. “They hear the cryptocurrency pitch and it sounds good.”

Morales and the other creators are happy to abide by the rules, but say the company needs to clarify the guidelines. This includes a clear definition of what is considered to promote cryptocurrencies and what qualifies their content as illegal activity and regulated goods. They also want a direct TikTok representative who can answer questions and concerns.

Amid the uncertainty, some creators are preparing to devote their time to other platforms. Lorden says he creates his YouTube and Discord accounts.

Thillens recently launched an account called CryptoKnight with Versluis, Timothy, and Dimos that works through Discord. They plan to organize public events and launch a website so that they “cannot be filtered”. But he admits that going viral overnight on TikTok trumps engagement on other platforms.

“There is nothing like it,” he said.