Instagram Suspends Accounts Of Crypto Influencers Who Criticized Underrepresentation Of Women In Community

Rachel Siegel, known as CryptoFinally in the crypto community, alleged that she, together with two other female crypto influencers, was blocked on Instagram after they criticized the underrepresentation of women in the blockchain and crypto industry.

Siegel was the sole female nominee in the upcoming Binance Influencer Awards, where the company seeks to recognize people who have contributed to the industry.

Siegel said the other women removed from Instagram where GirlGoneCrypto and TechWithCatalina, who was the sole female nominee for the Binance Spanish Awards.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, she noted how vocal she was with the gender disparity in the crypto community and that there were people who were not happy with her statements. “They have never been happy with talking about feminist values,” she added.

On Twitter, some users commented that Binance, and particularly its CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao should do something about the situation. To which Siegel replied that it has nothing to do with Zhao, Instagram or Facebook. “This has got to be a group of people targeting us,” she said.

Cointelegraph noted that a concerted effort to report a specific user could lead Instagram to suspend an account, pending manual review.

Regarding the lack of women among the nominees, a Twitter user tagged Zhao. Siegel made it clear in a subsequent tweet that she was not blaming Zhao for the nomination pool.

The nominees are actually selected by the community. The top 5 nominees for each region would be decided by Google Form vote (30% weight), social media poll vote (30% weight), and the Binance team (40%). Referring to the list of nominees, Siegel said, “It’s sad that we behave this way as a community. I’m not trying to implicate Binance in any wrongdoing. This is grassroots and starts with our behavior.”

Some Twitter users suggested that she should post every evidence she got as well as screenshots of her conversation with Instagram staff, while a few suggested it is better this way since Facebook and its apps like Instagram are massive "privacy leakers".

The winners of the Binance Influencer Awards will be announced at the company’s third anniversary virtual conference on July 14.