GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 41 - July 2018

difficult to differentiate between what’s right and wrong. Nations where there is some form of legal framework in place — the U.S., Japan and South Korea, to name a few — have managed to clamp down on the issue, but they haven’t been able to outlaw bad reporting altogether. Due to the inability to rid the world of fake news, financial and banking institutions have been quick to bash bitcoin and describe it as a “bubble.” But this isn’t where the story ends, as these same institutions have actually been contributing to the waves of misinformation flooding newswires. We’ve all seen the various nonsensical stories that tag bitcoin as scandalous, with such stories grabbing the attention of financial institu- tions, regulators and mass consumers. Combine them with the legitimate stories addressing the dark side of cryptos — issues related to black market usage, hacking attacks, fraud, Ponzi schemes and criminal activities — and the line between fact and fiction begins to blur. As the bitcoin buzz rumbles on, media outlets have discovered that sensationalized news stories surrounding the cryptocur- rency market are popular reads. Putting traffic before truth, they’ve gone beyond the pale in some instances to exploit bitcoin through controversial and often contradictory posts. These articles tend to fall in the eyeline of regulators under the guise of the truth, which has subsequently created further problems for bitcoin. GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION Hurting bitcoin’s cause among the mainstream media are the various cryptocurrency scams out there. In an attempt to issue a word of warning to our members, at BitStarz we recently listed five of the biggest crypto scams in history, to remind them that the digital currency market does have a dark side. However, many media outlets have gone over the top with the “bitcoin is a scam” rhetoric. These stories address supposed bit- coin Ponzi schemes, bitcoin wallet scams, bitcoin mining investment scams, bitcoin phishing scams and bitcoin exchange scams. Here’s the issue: The vast majority of scams — al- most all of them — aren’t directly linked to bitcoin. Just look at the common articles pub- lished via Forbes and the Financial Times. Statements like “Whenever something gets hot, the only guarantee is that scamsters will lock onto it like a heat-seeking missile. The virtual currency bitcoin is no exception,” are simply bending the truth. Even alternate financial newswires continue to push this propaganda. Just a few months ago, Yahoo! Finance published an article titled “Bitcoin scams: don’t fall victim to them!” Fortune went in even harder on bitcoin with “Bit Con? Veteran fraud expert sets his sights on bitcoin.” There are certainly cryptocurrencies based around scams, including various questionable ICOs, but they aren’t directly tied to bitcoin, in spite of what the mainstream media might have you believe. Shoddy reporting has been running rampant in recent years, with bitcoin feeling the brunt. What’s clear is that the current spate of bad journalism has an anti-bitcoin undertone to it that those uneducated on the cryptocurrency market seem to be falling for. There is a real ethical issue at hand, especially when you consider that many leading social media platforms recently banned crypto advertising, yet still openly publish misleading anti-bitcoin articles. CHANGING PERCEPTIONS There is no denying that the rise in bitcoin scaremongering has impacted its public perception. The way both the mainstream and alternative media address bitcoin ends up being a key reference point in the ongoing cryptocurrency debate. Making matters worse, we see plenty of older articles that dismissed bitcoin during its infancy being quoted and even republished as fact in 2018. Even though the arguments put forward in these articles have long since been disproved, they’re still put under the spotlight and deemed reputable. Evidently, it’s a twisted cycle that shows no real signs of ending. There are certainly cryptocurrencies based around scams , including various questionable ICOs, but they aren’t directly tied to bitcoin , in spite of what the mainstream media might have you believe . 47 W W W . G P W A T I M E S . O R G