Facebook has taken a bold move and banned all financial products and services ads on their platform that are related to cryptocurrency, ICO (Initial Coin Offerings), and Binary Options. In a blog post today, Facebook’s Rob Leathern, Product Management Director at Facebook, explained that they created a new policy:
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.
In the blog post, Facebook explained that they want “people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception.” However, by banning ALL “financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices” such as Cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, ICOs, Binary Options, isn’t Facebook making a bold statement, inferring that Cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, ICOs, Binary Options are, by nature, deceptive and scammy?
In any industry, especially where a significant amount of money is involved, there will be good and bad actors. Certainly Cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, ICOs, and Binary Options are not generally regulated and backed up by any government. So, you could lose your money. But do we really need, at this point, a ban on ALL ads that promote financial products and services, like Cryptocurrency, ICO (Initial Coin Offerings), and Binary Options? For now, it appears that any ads that even remotely mention cryptocurrency, ICO (Initial Coin Offerings), and Binary Options are prohibited on Facebook, as well as on the Audience Network and Instagram. Even ads that promote books and tutorials or videos.
