By
Mayowa Adebajo
February 7th, 2024
The Splinterlands gaming ecosystem was founded in 2018 and represents one of the first digital trading card games to utilize blockchain technology to turn its trading cards into NFT assets owned by the players.
Blockchain-based gaming outfit Splinterlands has bemoaned the suspension of its official account on American microblogging and social networking service, Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR). Per a press release shared with Coinspeaker, the suspension occurred on Wednesday morning, noting that neither a notification nor an explanation was given to the team by Twitter.
Besides the claim that the account has violated its rules, there has been no official communication, in what the Splinterlands team considers an attempt to censor the company’s activities. According to the company’s update, its game has appealed to users in the crypto and broader blockchain ecosystem, with the suspended Twitter vital in sharing updates and game resources to its community. Many of these Twitter followers are also active on the site, however, the social media account is vital in reaching potential new players and community members.
The Splinterlands gaming platform was built atop the Hive Blockchain, a decentralized and censor-resistant blockchain that is also home to multiple platforms like Peakd.com. The Hive Blockchain and Peakd.com are particularly becoming popular amongst bloggers, as the platforms discourage the censorship of content or users in comparison to traditional social networks.
The Splinterlands team said over 100 contents relating to its platform are created in Hive communities and these are shared on mainstream social media platforms such as Twitter.
“This will only help us grow,” says Dr. Jesse Reich, co-founder, and CEO of Splinterlands. “We’re thankful to the community for spreading our messages of in-game asset ownership and economic freedom even when we ourselves are silenced.”
The Splinterlands gaming ecosystem was founded in 2018 and represents one of the first digital trading card games to utilize blockchain technology to turn its trading cards into Non-Fungible Token (NFT) assets owned by the players. These assets can be traded in dedicated marketplaces to earn income. The Splinterlands team said it is working with Twitter to resolve the causes of the ban, however, there is no defined timeline in which this will be resolved.
Twitter and the Tale of Account Banning
Twitter is one of the most used social media platforms in the world today and has grown to become a hub for sharing personal opinions for everyone globally. The company has banned a lot of high-profile accounts from its platform in recent times. Some of these include former United States President, Donald Trump, and a tweet from Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari was taken down on account that it violated some of its policies.
The latter occurrence has drawn a reprimand from the Nigerian government, leading to the ban of Twitter in the country. While what looks like censorship is meted out with high-profile government officials, a number of crypto-related accounts have also witnessed a similar ban or suspension from the microblogging site.
The incessant censorship of contents by big tech social media has stirred the clamor for more blockchain-backed censorship-resistant social networks. While these are yet to gain traction, there is an expectation that the blockchain revolution is billed to extend to the area in the medium to long term.
