The Scoop
Several business-focused digital news outlets quietly took down news articles about the massive scale of junk information floating around the cryptocurrency space.
Earlier this month, the crypto public relations and communications firm Chainstory released a study the company conducted saying that many of the crypto press release “wires” had been paid to promote projects considered to be high-risk or scammy. The study also noted that many of these companies guaranteed some news outlets would cover the press releases, and were essentially flooding the space with garbage crypto information dressed up to look like reliable news.
The study was covered fairly widely within the crypto space, garnering links in Coinbase, Cointelegraph, and other outlets.
But some sites that wrote up the survey appeared to have a change of heart.
Investing.com, one of the biggest business-focused digital news and investing sites, ran a piece titled, Crypto press releases dominated by high risk projects, chainstory study finds. But within a few days, it had been taken down without explanation. The publication did not return Semafor’s request for clarification about why the page had been removed.
Crypto Potato, a niche news site popular among crypto enthusiasts, also wrote up the study, explaining that crypto press “wires” operate on a pay-to-play basis that “turns article placement into a paid commodity.” But the blog similarly removed its story.
Neither site shared with Semafor why they removed the articles. But one person familiar with the decisions told Semafor that at least one executive from a company described by the survey had reached out to multiple outlets asking for the pieces to be taken down, arguing that the survey data was faulty and biased.
In this article:
Max’s view
For well-resourced business and finance professionals, the volume of quality information out there has never been greater. Premium news outlets aimed specifically at major investors and other serious financial institutions have increased significantly in recent years as media companies have looked to cater to premium advertisers and subscribers.
But as serious news outlets have increasingly concentrated on the high end, a downmarket digital ecosystem for financial information has emerged for casual investors and day traders. Here, PR, AI-fueled analysis, and hastily-written, short articles blend together in an editorial stew that is often far from objective or factual. While these sites get little attention from mainstream media outlets, many people across the world rely on the information they provide for free. They’re also increasingly feeding the large-language models informing the public, and have few journalistic standards or scruples.
Notable
- In 2023, Semafor noted how Investing.com created AI-generated stories that highly resembled stories published just hours earlier by other competitors without crediting the original source.