CCN shuts down, blames latest Google Core update

In a surprise announcement, one of crypto’s biggest news sites CCN is shutting down after the latest Google Core update deleted over 71% of its mobile traffic overnight.

According to the release, Google’s June 2019 Core Update - a broad-stroke adjustment to Google’s search algorithm - rolled out on June 3rd and almost instantly had a massive effect on CCN’s visibility on the world’s biggest search engine. The site claims it’s lost over 90% of its daily revenue since:


“This change by Google is directly having a significant impact on us as a small independent news organization that has never received any outside funding. The money we make made on advertisements was directly funneled back into growing the team.”


The announcement goes on to make various points, noting that the Core Update seems to have adversely affected many of crypto’s biggest news outlets (including Cointelegraph and U.today) and ‘indirectly’ accusing Google of liberal bias:


“Many of our political Op-Eds have been “Pro-Trump.” Remember: We are mainly a crypto centered news site. [...] While I won’t speculate whether or not this might have affected our site, I would certainly hope Google isn’t actively suppressing journalism.”


CCN will be closing its doors and ‘moving the entire team over to HVY.com‘ for the time being.


The community reaction to the news was mixed to say the least. Some blamed CCN for poor money management if they had to pack up and leave as soon as trouble came knocking:

Or that they should’ve focused on diversifying its revenue streams:

Others were wading in schadenfreude, calling CCN an alt-right and censor-happy platform:

...accusing the site of propagating fake news:

...or bashing CCN for being generally unreliable or clickbait dependent:

That said, not everyone welcomed the CCN announcement. Even non-fans of the site saw issue with the untested power of a centralized entity that gets to unanimously decide what information you’re seeing, and which companies live and die:

Some also reiterated CCN’s claim that Google is actively suppressing conservative voices:

...and that the Core Update was an attack on all crypto-related information:

Perhaps the best summary of general crowd sentiment news comes to us from u_chatfarm, and his colorful description of the main story stakeholders:

As of now, CCN is still up, tho their main Twitter account has already started retweeting HVY’s articles instead:

Thanks for reading!

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