On September 25th of 2020 the LBRY Android app was removed from the Google Play Store, presumably by Google. If you were to search for LBRY on the Play Store you would simply find nothing rather than a message announcing the banning like the one I created above.
LBRY is an alternative video platform to Youtube that provides data location and monetization via it's own block chain, and crypto-currency token: LBC, short for LBRY Credits.
LBRY had several hundred thousand downloads on the Play Store, and over 3,000 user reviews holding a 4-Stars out of 5 average rating.
The removal came just as LBRY was launching their new front-end website portal Odysee.com.
Odysee is the newest website where users who are unfamiliar to the platform could discover the content along with LBRY.tv. Both host the same content, but Odysee adds the possibility of traditional ad-based revenue for LBRY creators.
When the LBRY team attempted to contact Google on the matter they received an e-mail citing a comedy sketch video that contained "simulated sexual intercourse" as being in violation of the Play Store's policies. This makes no sense given the fact that there was no actual pornography in the video, and the Play Store allows Twitter's application which allows pornography outright.
Though it should be noted, one can view pornography on LBRY by explicitly opting-in to allowing NSFW/Explicit content via an option in the application's settings dialogue. Odysee.com however, does not showcase NSFW content.
Google banned LBRY Android from the Playstore without warning and for contrived reasons.
— LBRY 📚 ⚖️ 📣 (@LBRYcom) September 25, 2020
This video details their exact communications, reasoning, and hypocrisy.
We believe we are being targeted due to big creators fleeing YouTube for LBRY.
Please share 🙏 pic.twitter.com/0lazG4Ysem
Given the lousy grounds for the removal, one could speculate that Google was attempting to stifle the growth of an alternative competing product to Google's own Youtube video service. Youtube itself has taken a somewhat hostile stance towards crypto-based platforms in the past by banning any video that was deemed guilty of giving financial advice.
Also, another crypto-based alternative social media site Minds.com, had their app removed from the Play Store over a year ago.
As a content creator myself, I always promote LBRY and other alternatives in each one of my video's intro sequences, and I am sure to link to my other publishing platforms in each video's description.
DS-Tech Media is a very small channel, but I've seen many larger channels promoting LBRY more and more frequently.
It probably doesn't help that LBRY even offers a Youtube Sync feature that allows you to automagically transfer your entire existing Youtube catalogue and subsequent uploads quite conveniently to your LBRY account.
I'm just glad to see LBRY still growing, and back up on the Play Store to pull people away from the clench of big-tech's monopoly and censorship.
Thank you for reading.
