If you've been part of the crypto space for a while, you are well aware of CCN and their reporting. They've been for years the biggest crypto news outlet online, but today they are announcing their shutdown. Why you ask? Well, they blame google.

_ccn.com

Google's Power

I don't know what to think about this, but I'm pretty much convinced we've done this to ourselves. On the one hand it's indisputable that google has provided immense value and has truly pioneered the growth of the internet as we know it, but on the other hand they have too much power.

Those who are strict on their ideas of free market see this as a consequence of capitalism, but there are some voices who understand that the downsides far outweigh ideological lines. In other words, if google's power is akin to a market monopoly, then it paradoxically destroys the free market.

Why is it google's fault?

According to an article posted, and to some of the comments I've read on the subject, Google just updated their search engine and the results have been disastrous for the ccn's web traffic. So the accusation here, is that google intentionally is controlling the information by artificially hiding some websites over others.

Is this true? Well, it seems to be the case, and of course CCN is not the only crypto related website who has seen their traffic and thus income reduced immensely, but the "shadow banning" for lack of a better term is not exclusive to crypto.

It's biased

Without a doubt it is, but don't make the mistake of thinking this is the deep state or some dark entity behind a curtain pulling the strings. This is about money, it always has been, it always will be.

As a matter of fact it seems like some of the traffic has been "redirected", if you will, to more mainstream outlets and they are not specifically right wing or left wing, just more mainstream. This revelation makes it easy to understand what might be going on.

What to do?

The simplest way to explain it is this: Begin to make the transition. There are choices out there for google, gogoduck comes to mind, there are choices for browsers, Brave Browser is quite fantastic. But if the users don't "vote" if you will with our choices, then things are likely to continue as they are.

Does CCN shutting down make me a bear? No, not really... and as a matter of fact I would not be completely surprised if new oopsies get revealed in the coming days, oopsies mind you, that probably have nothing to do with google as well.

MenO