As EU institutions are moving to regulate the crypto industry, European lawmakers have been subjected to unprecedented levels of online harassment. Two female members of the EU Parliament have been especially targeted by the predominantly male advocates of cryptocurrencies.
While cyber-harassment by so-called “crypto bros” has been an issue before, it reached a new fever pitch in the past week, when the economic affairs committee and the civil liberties committee of the European Parliament discussed a change of anti-money laundering rules to make it more difficult for cryptocurrencies to be used to circumvent those rules.
“My whole life, I have been working to fight crime and I received a lot of threats,” Assita Kanko, co-rapporteur of the European Parliament on this issue told EURACTIV. “But this is nothing like I’ve ever seen before,” she added.
The harassment included sexist and racist insults as well as threats of violence, Kanko said, mentioning that her child had seen some of the messages and was very upset by it.
“I am shocked. They are trying to take away my legitimacy as a competent person based on my gender and the colour of my skin,” Kanko told EURACTIV.
Kanko, who is part of the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament, does not see herself as a crypto critic. “Crypto is not necessarily bad. People are free to use whatever they want, but some bad people use anonymity to do bad…
