In brief
- The Australian Bitcoin Industry Body has filed a formal complaint against ABC News over an article it claims contained “multiple factual errors” and “one-sided framing.”
- The disputed ABC article claimed that Bitcoin “has no useful purpose” and is primarily used by “those operating in the shadows.”
- ABIB is calling on ABC News to issue corrections and engage subject-matter expertise in future crypto reporting.
An Australian crypto lobbying group has lodged a formal complaint with the national broadcaster over alleged “multiple factual errors” and “one-sided framing” in recent crypto coverage.
The Australian Bitcoin Industry Body filed its grievance with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday, targeting an article that the group claims “misrepresented Bitcoin’s purpose, conflated it with criminal activity, omitted long-standing publicly available information, and relied on sensational language rather than evidence.”
ABC News, Australia’s government-funded public broadcaster and the nation’s largest media organization, operating television, radio, and digital news services, published the contested piece analyzing Bitcoin’s recent price volatility and questioning its utility.
In the disputed article, ABC’s chief business correspondent Ian Verrender wrote that Bitcoin has “never realised any of its stated goals and has no useful purpose,” and described it as a tool “for those operating in the shadows,” whose role has been “usurped by stablecoins, particularly one known as Tether.”
ABIB’s complaint says the coverage breaches the ABC’s own Editorial Policies and Code of Conduct by ignoring “well-documented global and local use-cases, including energy-grid stabilisation and humanitarian remittances, to merchant adoption and sovereign reserves.”
The group stated it is “frequently contacted by members of the public who are frustrated by recurring misrepresentation of Bitcoin in Australian media, particularly from publicly funded institutions that are required by statute to provide accurate, impartial journalism.”
The complaint comes as Bitcoin recovered to $92,972, up 6.4% in the last day, according to CoinGecko data, following a massive decline in the past few weeks.
As of early Wednesday morning, users on prediction market Myriad are bullish on Bitcoin’s near-term prospects, placing a 78.4% chance on the crypto pumping to $100,000.
(Disclaimer: Myriad is owned by Decrypt‘s parent company, DASTAN.)
ABIB’s formal submission cites the “offending sentences directly, outlines each breach of policy, and calls on the ABC to issue corrections, uphold its editorial obligations, and engage subject-matter expertise in future reporting.”
“The public deserve better,” the group stated. “Bitcoin deserves informed, responsible coverage, not dismissal through outdated narratives.”
Tether under fire
The ABC article prominently featured criticism of Tether’s stablecoin USDT, with Verrender writing that it “offers users an avenue to fly under the radar” while citing a wide-ranging investigation by The Economist, which called the token “money launderers’ dream currency.”
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists pointed out in a Monday report that at least $1.4 billion in USDT tokens passed through a crypto wallet linked to the Cambodia-based Huione Group, which U.S. authorities flagged for laundering billions tied to North Korean hackers, human trafficking, and scam operations.
The U.S. and UK cut Huione off from the international banking system in October, with branches of its Huione Pay service closing doors and halting cash withdrawals this week.
Decrypt has reached out to ABC News and Tether for further comment.
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