‘Many companies advertising ICOs and cryptocurrencies are not operating in good faith’
Facebook’s banned ads for cryptocurrencies from its platform, on suspicion that plenty of them will be placed by scammers.
A new Clause 29 in the “Prohibited Content” section of its Advertising Policies says “Ads must not promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings, or cryptocurrency.”
The Social Network™ offered the following examples of ads it won’t run:
In a post by product management director Rob Leathern, the company says the policy is designed to stop ads about “financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency.”
“We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception,” Leathern wrote. “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,” Leathern added, noting that it won’t block every ad and promising the policy will be revised “as our signals improve.”
The signal of most interest in this tale may well be Facebook’s assessment that the cryptocurrency community is currently a wretched hive of scum and villainy rife with scams from which its users must be protected. It’s often been observed that Bitcoin seems most-loved by entities that enjoy having their financial dealings hidden. Facebook labelling promoters of similar instruments likely scams won’t do anything to improve that perception. ®
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