Poland's Central Bank Accused of Paying YouTubers To Make Videos That Attack the Legitimacy of Cryptocurrencies (businessinsider.com)

Poland's central bank has been accused of hiring YouTubers to "start a smear campaign" against cryptocurrencies in the country, Business Insider reports. From the story: According to Business Insider Poland, the Narodowy Bank Polski spent around 91,000 zloty ($27,300) on a marketing campaign designed to attack the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies. The money was spent on platforms including Google and Facebook, but was also used to pay a Polish Youtube partner network called Gamellon. The Gamellon network reportedly represents many of Poland's top YouTubers, including popular prankster Marcin Dubiel. In December, Dubiel published a video titled "STRACILEM WSZYSTKIE PIENIADZE?!" -- which loosely translates as "I LOST ALL MY MONEY?!" In the satirical video, Dubiel invests all his money in a fake cryptocurrency called Dubielcoin, gets rich, but then sees its value plunge and loses everything. It has racked up over 500,000 views.

Comments

I could have been getting paid?!

[Anonymous Coward]

I could have been getting paid telling people how stupid bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are?! And here I've been doing it for free like a chump.

Re:I could have been getting paid?!

[Major_Disorder]

Come one SlashDot, I need contact info. Who exactly do I need to talk to, to get on this gravytrain?

Re:I could have been getting paid?!

[darth.hunterix]

Don't worry, they pay in bitcoins.

But it's true

[iamhassi]

They're doing stories about people losing money in bitcoin. That's true, many have lost money, so what's the problem? It's not like they're a news agency that should be unbiased and present both sides of a story, they're a bank smearing.... is bitcoin even a competitor really? This seems more like a cautionary tale than a smear campaign

Re:But it's true

[Mr307]

You just need the faith that completely unregulated gambling is going to work out great for 'everyone'.

Stop being an unbeliever.

Re:But it's true

[war4peace]

There are aspects that make or break this thing.

You're saying "hey, it's true, what's the fuss?" - well, Poland is in the EU, and the EU has strict regulations around paid advertising.
Any advertising that's paid for MUST explicitly be identified as such.

For example, I could, as a Youtuber, make a video exactly like the one discussed in TFS and not be paid by anyone. I could express my own opinion, using my own resources (time, money) and monetize the content, earn money out of it, form opinions in my followers, etc. That's fine.
Similarly, I, the Youtuber, could be paid by a bank to make a similar video, and it's also fine as long as I explicitly mention in my video that it's advertising paid for by the bank, with the bank's name and everything.

I am not allowed to make a video, be paid by the bank, and not mention that anywhere.

Not sure which was the case because TFS is paywalled and I am not turning my adblocker off for that site.

Re:What's the problem?

[bobbied]

(snip)

Cryptocurrencies are the wild west, but that seems to be a design feature, so caveat emptor.

One man's propaganda is another's truth... I agree, It pays to be aware of what both sides are saying...

Re:LIES

[easyTree]

> often campaigns are directly controlled from Kremlin

baseless rumors and lies

Yeap; pretty sure that's what GP is saying, the baseless rumours and lies are directly controlled by Kremlin.