Love is Bitcoin®, a Bitcoin culture magazine and Lightning powered media brand which markets women's clothing to its 99.9% male audience, is facing backlash on X (Formerly Twitter) over a risqué new social media campaign "Bitties Out For Privacy", calling for women to show their breasts as a symbol of solidarity and support for Samourai Wallet co-founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill. The two were arrested Wednesday for laundering CIA and FBI money and now face charges of money laundering and of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business.
Florencia "Libby" Montoya, Love is Bitcoin®'s community manager says the reaction to the new campaign has been mostly positive. "The posts received overwhelmingly positive reactions, mostly from our male followers." Montoya told The Bugle. "Our male followers understand and appreciate out light-hearted humor, sexually suggestive but ultimately PG-13 content, and most of all, they support privacy. We receive a great deal of DM's to our social media accounts from men on Bitcoin Twitter complimenting 'Libby'. Many vowed to defend her and the magazine from 'jealous trolls'" She added.
But the controversial posts prompted a few Bitcoin Twitter influencers to respond to express their disapproval. "This is just distasteful. Privacy violations are not something to exploit for merch sales and more social media followers." One upset follower replied in a tweet. Some announced they were going to unfollow Love is Bitcoin® account over the posts. Other's expressed frustration about seeing the posts despite not following the account, "I don't even follow this perverted account. It's always showing up in my feed because Surfer Jim likes all their tweets." One account tweeted.
"Best case scenario, it works and people rise up to demand the right to privacy, the Samourai devs are acquitted, and people can go back to mixing their coins without any worries. Worst case scenario, we see Bitties® all over the timeline..."
Despite the backlash, Love is Bitcoin® founder and author George Saoulidis said the magazine has no intentions of canceling the campaign. "Bitcoin Twitter is a contentious place. Everyone gets mad at everyone else every day. Controversy is good for a business like ours. It drives engagement and keeps us in the conversation. If our content offends you, you're welcome to unfollow." When asked about the end goal of the "Bitties Out For Privacy" campaign, Saoulidis responded, "Best case scenario, it works and people rise up to demand the right to privacy, the Samourai devs are acquitted, and people can go back to mixing their coins without any worries. Worst case scenario, we see Bitties® all over the timeline. I think the outcome will probably end up being somewhere in the middle. I think its something we can all get behind."