Facebook to Ban Cryptocurrency Related Ads

While cryptocurrency is becoming more and more mainstream as digital currencies such as bitcoin have seen dramatic historical runs in the past year, Facebook is not on board for advertising it.

The company announced on Tuesday that it will be banning ads that promote financial products and services that are related or connected to cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings.

The company’s product management director Rob Leathern commented, “We’ve created a new policy that prohibits ads that promote
financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency.”

He also said, “We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception. That said, there are many companies who are advertising binary options, ICOs and cryptocurrencies that are not currently operating in good faith.”

“This policy is intentionally broad while we work to better detect deceptive and misleading advertising practices, and enforcement will begin to ramp up across our platforms including Facebook, Audience Network and Instagram. We will revisit this policy and how we enforce it as our signals improve,” he explained.

He continued, “We also understand that we may not catch every ad that should be removed under this new policy, and encourage our community to report content that violates our Advertising Policies. People can report any ad on Facebook by clicking on the upper right-hand corner of the ad.

In conclusion he stated, “This policy is part of an ongoing effort to improve the integrity and security of our ads, and to make it harder for scammers to profit from a presence on Facebook.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) and have not been compensated for this article.