Facebook is going to ban all ads related to cryptocurrency. Advertisements such as promoting Bitcoin or anything else will be banned. This latest development will surely deal a huge blow to many businesses and exchanges.
Facebook is the largest social media platform right now. Many businesses and exchanges use Facebook to advertise their exchange/crypto coin which helps them generate a lot of traffic. With Facebook’s new rules, these businesses and exchanges will no longer be able to promote their crypto tokens and ICOs. With businesses and exchanges not being able to promote what they have to offer, they will likely suffer huge dips in revenue.
With the new set of rules, even the popular advertiser James Altucher won’t be able to advertise on Facebook either. Also, the ban isn’t limited to just Facebook or the Facebook app. Wherever Facebook has its own ads enabled, you won’t be able to advertise cryptocurrency. An example of such places would be Instagram and Audience Network, Facebook’s own ad network. According to Facebook, it’s trying to prevent people from advertising “financial products and services frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices.”
The reason?
Although cryptocurrency has been around for some time now, it never got as much mainstream attention as it has done before 2017. When 2017 came about, cryptocurrency still wasn’t talked about as much. However, there was a sudden boom in the currency which saw it making tremendous gains with some currencies growing exponentially. The year 2017 saw many Bitcoin holders turn into millionaires and cryptocurrency has become the talk of the town ever since.
Ever since cryptocurrency grew into the giant it is today, more and more people want to participate in the crypto market. Therefore, people who don’t know much about cryptocurrency but also want to try to profit from the market are easily lured into scams. There have been increasing reports of scams and frauds that have had cryptocurrency in its center.
China has started to move towards banning cryptocurrency trading after finding out many questionable activities that were going on with cryptocurrency at their heart. Cryptocurrency was found to be linked with activities such as money laundering. Regarding scams and frauds, the most recent one was the BitConnect scam. BitConnect shut down not too long ago because it was found out that it had been scamming its customers by promising them unrealistic profits.
These scams have led to a lot of investors losing their money. Therefore, Facebook has banned all advertisements related to cryptocurrency in an effort to reduce scams. This is what one of Facebook’s ad tech directors had to say:
“This policy is intentionally broad while we work to better detect deceptive and misleading advertising practices.” “We will revisit this policy and how we enforce it as our signals improve.”
Facebook may have good intentions with this ban however, this causes more problems than it solves. The ban in a way punishes the legitimate businesses and exchanges who have done no wrong yet they’re still at the receiving end of the ban. Many people’s earnings and livelihoods will also be affected.
Another argument made is that the people who suffered from scams are themselves responsible for what happened to them. It has always been recommended to always do your research before investing in cryptocurrency. Expect Facebook to receive massive backlash for banning cryptocurrency related ads.
Instead of banning crypto ads altogether, many have proposed the idea of Facebook working with the relevant authorities in validating and sorting the legitimate businesses from the scammers. That way, the people who have done no wrong can advertise their content while also ensuring the safety of investors.
Facebook has raised a lot of eyebrows with its latest decision. However, people won’t take this decision lightly as there are more legitimate businesses than scammers. Facebook’s own board of directors also includes two cryptocurrency investors. Therefore, it’s likely for the ban to be lifted given some time.