CEO of Coinbase spreads Political Misinformation
2 min read- Brian Armstrong Tweets politically charged blog post full of lies and misinformation
- Tweet Sparks fury and accusations of hypocrisy across the cryptocurrency community.
Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong, has again sparked controversy today after sharing an extremely disingenuous political tweet. In a textbook case of “Do as I say, not as I do,” Armstrong has contradicted his own political neutrality stance. Back in September, Armstrong wrote and published a controversial blog piece on Coinbase’s website in which he controversially stated:
“We don’t advocate for any particular causes or candidates internally that are unrelated to our mission, because it is a distraction from our mission. Even if we all agree something is a problem, we may not all agree on the solution.”
The Tweet in question – published on October 23rd – posts a link to a blog by Rob Rhinehart and discusses Kanye West’s presidential campaign. Armstrong describes the blog piece – which is full of lies – as an “Epic Post.” The blog post, entitled “Why I am Voting for Kanye West.” promotes an obscene number of lies and falsehoods. One particularly alarming lie is the claim that Beau Biden killed himself (He tragically passed away from brain cancer in 2015). Rob Rhinehart’s Twitter account has since been suspended in line with Twitter’s ban on political misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Coinbase Hypocrisy
Predictably, the tweet has sparked accusations of hypocrisy from other prominent members of the cryptocurrency community. The tweet came during Coinbase’s business hours, which has caused many to view it as a tacit violation of Coinbase’s own apolitical stance outlined in September. That stance directly resulted in the departure of sixty members of staff from Coinbase. In response to the departure, Armstrong claimed that a “Silent majority” of staff agreed with his apolitical mission statement.
The hypocrisy of Armstrong’s actions will not reflect well on Coinbase. His actions undermine the stated apolitical position of the company. This is certain to cause unrest with his staff, who have allegedly felt their freedom of speech has been stifled.
