Facebook To Ban Ads for Cryptocurrency Including Bitcoin

In a move that seeks to enhance Facebook’s policy against deceptive marketers, the company has announced that it is going to ban all ads promoting cryptocurrencies, including initial coin offerings and bitcoin. Advertisers, including those operating legitimate businesses, will not be able to post ads about bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.

While explaining the decision, Rob Leathern who is the product management Director of Facebook, says the company is no longer going to accept advertisements promoting financial services and products that are often associated with deceptive or misleading promotional practices. He, however, says that this is not a permanent decision and that social media giant will reevaluate the rules when it has improved its methods of detecting and getting rid of deceptive ads.

Rob further stated that Facebook wants people to keep on discovering and learning about new services and products through ads without doubting them as deception or scams. He mentioned that there are companies advertising cryptocurrencies, binary options, and initial coin offerings that are not presently operating as required by law.

This new move is intentionally broad as the company works to better identify misleading and deceptive advertising practices, and ramp up enforcement across Instagram and Facebook. Facebook urges users to report any advertisement that violates the company’s advertising policies. Nonetheless, Rob has not specified how much presence cryptocurrencies ads had on Facebook before this change.

The cryptocurrency boom has resulted in wild price fluctuations and scams that have cost many people a lot of money. Although Facebook allows for people to post sensitive financial ads, with a bit of restriction, written permission is required for real-money gaming or gambling service.

Advertisers of such services are also required to target users aged 18 and above. It is likely that legal, legitimate cryptocurrency adverts will be treated similarly in the long run, once the social media giant devices a way to regulate cryptocurrencies.