It’s really not. I’m so tired of people being surprised by articles like this. Scams like this and ransomware would simply not exist without cryptocurrency, and that’s enough for me to eschew their use entirely.
There is literally no legitimate excuse for cryptocurrency, and I don’t think there ever was.
Except that the most international crime is enumerated in $. Do we ban dollars? Probably not and, again, we have nothing better than conclude that since we put together "crypto" and "scam" we conclude all "crypto bad". Zero exceptions. Why are comments like this allowed on a "nerdy site"? Can someone please explain or better yet stop it. Where is @dang when you need her?
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies allow new crimes and scams.
I maintain that cryptocurrency in general is a borderline scam in and of itself. Prices are easily manipulated and once you convince enough people that cryptocurrency is good, people start exchanging it for actual money, and then it crosses from borderline scam into actual scam.
Also let’s stop repeating the claim that Twitter has “free speech“. You can’t criticize Elon there, or post the location of his jet. “Free speech” is just a thin veiled lie to excuse their bringing in extremists like Alex Jones or Trump.
So “QA” on ads is still moderation and, if you like, can be called “censorship”. Interestingly, under Musk Twitter still moderates ads more strictly than tweets.
The bar has been dropping, since it’s either QA and almost no ads or profit, or this kind of shady ads and at least some profit. Original Twitter in this situation was burning money by not showing ads at all while working hard on publicity and reputation to attract the big advertisers and become a sustainable business. Now the new guy comes says he will stop them burning money… and basically nukes the business model.
Also a lot of fraud likes or spamming referral posts. What is shitty is that you report them 5 times and still it is displayed again. Always with the exact same message so it should be easy for X to filter.
