Facebook Bans Ads Related To Cryptocurrency On Its Platforms
Social media giant Facebook has announced that it will no longer allow advertisements that are used to promote cryptocurrencies on its platforms. The company made the decision as part of its plan to discourage and stop people from posting ads that contain financial products and services that are often fraudulent, misleading and deceptive.
The announcement perhaps highlights the recent scams that have taken place in the cryptocurrency industry through which a lot of people have lost their money. Facebook has more than 1 billion users and this makes its platform highly attractive to advertisers. The announcement that it will no longer allow cryptocurrency-related content to be advertised on its platforms is thus a huge blow to companies or individuals that were hoping to use the platform to attract more customers.
Meanwhile, cryptocurrency continues to be a big deal with Bitcoin leading the pack. The cryptocurrency ad ban by Facebook means ads even from crypto-savvy people like James Altucher whose ads have been all over the web will no longer be able to post cryptocurrency ads on Facebook.
Rob Leathern, an ad tech director at Facebook had this to say about the ban: “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.”
It is not clear whether the statement meant that the ban is temporary since Leathern stated that the policy would be revisited. Facebook seemed to be concerned about the fact that the cryptocurrency boom has provided scammers with new opportunities to take advantage of people and the losses suffered by people who have lost money due to price fluctuations. The ban might just be the company’s way of showing concern and protecting its users.
Some investors and entrepreneurs have however argued that the company’s decision to ban cryptocurrency-related ads from its platform was unfair especially to the legitimate organizations and firms that deal with cryptocurrency. Some prominent crypto backers such as Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen also happen to be members of Facebook’s board of directors. Despite this, the social media giant seems to be distancing itself from anything to do with cryptocurrency advertising. Perhaps it would have been better to feature ads from crypto companies that are legitimate rather than blocking all of them. However, there is a chance that a revision of the ban in the future might bring about more leniency as hinted by Leathern in his statement.