Justin Sun Accused of Promoting Illicit Activity on BitTorrent
After purchasing BitTorrent for $140 million, Justin Sun implemented a no-moderation strategy that has come under scrutiny for potentially fostering illegal content distribution.
Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, appears to be embroiled in yet another scandal. Recent revelations by Protos journalists, who obtained sensitive documents, indicate that Sun promoted a no-moderation policy at BitTorrent, which he acquired for $140 million in 2018.
Sun’s vision to transform BitTorrent since its acquisition has been geared towards turning it into a crypto-centric platform. His strategy has been integrating cryptocurrency functionalities and launching a native token, BTT, which now boasts a market cap of approximately $1.1 billion. However, as with many of Sun’s projects, he appears to employ shady practices to promote BitTorrent.
The former CEO of BitTorrent, Jordy Berson, disclosed some of the internal dilemmas faced by the team during a deposition. Berson highlighted the concerns over the potential for BitTorrent to facilitate the distribution of illicit content. Despite these concerns, Sun allegedly insisted on no moderation to attract more users, purportedly seeking to create a platform where illicit activities could occur unchecked.
According to the deposition, Sun frequently deceived the Apple and Google App stores about moderation on his apps. If BitTorrent was removed from the app stores due to inadequate moderation, Sun’s usual strategy was to “temporarily fix the issue” only to revert the changes later. His approach was more about avoiding detection by Apple and Google rather than genuinely adhering to a moderation policy.
To make matters even more murky, Berson accused Sun of creating a toxic workplace where employees were often fired for insubordination or resigned due to disagreements with the company’s content moderation policies.
This is certainly not the first time Sun has been implicated in controversial activities. His reputation in the cryptocurrency community has been marred by past accusations of unethical practices. Reports from employees describe Sun as exhibiting unprofessional behavior and having an ego easily manipulated by sycophants.
Moreover, Sun’s crypto empire appears increasingly unstable. Circle recently halted support for USDC on Tron, leading to speculation about potential similar actions by Tether with USDT. Since a significant volume of Tron transactions involves USDT, any discontinuation by Tether will effectively make it a ghost chain.
Also, last year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Sun and his companies with multiple violations, including unregistered offerings and sales of TRX and BTT, market manipulation of TRX, and undisclosed payments to celebrities for promoting TRX and BTT.
As the controversies surrounding Justin Sun continue to unfold, we continue to Observe if this pattern of alleged rule bending and risky behaviors will finally have lasting repercussions, or if he will find a way to navigate through these challenges once again.
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