The Economic Times reported that “A note has been moved (by the finance ministry) for inter-ministerial consultations” regarding a legal framework for cryptocurrency.
Other news sites (Bloomberg, MoneyControl, MoneyLife, ) have published their own articles, all citing the Economic Times. Naturally, the crypto press has picked up on the same story overseas. To the casual news reader, the ban is now inevitable.
The only piece of actual news in the ET article, though, is that a note has been drafted by the finance ministry for inter-ministerial discussions on a legal framework for cryptocurrency in India. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. Everything beyond this is speculation.
This has led to these articles being shared on social media over and over with similar speculative discussion. It’s another example of today’s media’s SOP to use sensation to drive page views, as we have seen in the series on 21st Century Media.
This could have been a chance to own a discussion, become the destination that people trust, about India’s approach to cryptocurrency. Any one of the media sites could have distinguished clearly between the news – the note – and the context: the RBI’s banning of cryptocurrency in 2018, the IAMAI petition in the Supreme Court to reverse it, the SC’s judgement earlier reversing the ban, the difference between a legal framework and the RBI mandate, what a good legal framework could look like. Coverage like this combined with the trust and brand recognition of any of these news companies could have heviuly influenced the awareness about, and therefore the debate on, cryptocurrency in India.
This is a lost opportunity.