The term Fake News has been in the limelight for the past year, but the actual mechanism has been around for decades. The medial controls what you see, and therefore has the ability to shape the thoughts of the uninformed.
The media has been linking Bitcoin to drugs for the past 4 years relentlessly . It all started with the discovery that Silk Road was using Bitcoin to facilitate drug sales.
Search results get returned in the millions by simply typing in 'bitcoin' and 'drugs':
But, guess what? The amount of Bitcoin used for illegal activity is small in comparison to the greatest means of exchange of all. The one thing that drug dealers, gun runners, thieves, and other criminals love to use more than anything. What is it?
That's right, cash. Preferably US dollars. In 2009, CNN reported that 90 percent of all bills have cocaine on them:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/14/cocaine.traces.money/
Type in 'drug bust' into google, and click on the images:
I challenge you to find a picture without cash in it, and then try to find a picture with bitcoin, lol.
After your done with the media, and search engines, move over to politicians and financial advisors. Now, some financial advisors are on board, so that market is splitting, but the politicians are still stuck on the drug and criminal activity of crypto. A day doesn't go by that some politician doesn't demand more regulation.
Maybe what the politicians should worry about is regulating themselves. They are the original criminals. Take a look a this incomplete list of politicians that have committed crimes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_state_and_local_politicians_convicted_of_crimes
There are 661, and that doesn't include guys like Jesse Jackson who: 'spent $750K of campaign funds on personal expenses including a $43K Rolex WATCH'
For every incident of illegal activity, there are 10 good things going on in the Crypto world.
So, next time you see a story about Bitcoin and crime, ask yourself, "Why can't they find one good story?"
