Rachel Siegel, also known as CryptoFinally, was recently the only woman nominated for the Binance Influencer Awards. She alleges that she and two fellow female crypto influencers were deplatformed from Instagram following their criticism of the underrepresentation of women in the Blockchain industry. The other women who were allegedly targeted are TechWithCatalina and GirlGoneCrypto.
Questioning the status quo
Siegel told Cointelegraph that she has been very vocal about underrepresentation of women in the crypto industry. She noted that out of 25 award nominees, she is the only female:
“I have been very local about the fact that there is a gender disparity in the cryptocurrency community and people are not happy with that. They have never been happy with talking about feminist values. So what we know is that the people who were removed were me, GirlGoneCrypto <...> and <...> TechWithCatalina.”
The latter was the only female nominee for the Binance Spanish Awards. Both women have been known to collaborate with Siegel.
It is possible that Instagram users who disagreed with or felt threatened by the calls for inclusion reported the trio to Instagram, either individually or as a unified effort. Once enough users report a user, their account will typically be suspended pending manual review.
Choosing the Nominees
Nominees for the Binance Influencer Awards were apparently determined by both the community and the Binance team. The community vote carried 60% of the weight with Binance’s team accounting for the remaining 40%.
Cointegraph reached out to Binance for comment, but has not received a response in time for publication.