Facebook bans Ads for crypto exchanges, revised policies for financial services

The crackdown on crypto exchanges seems to be a good move when you are under scrutiny for changing News Feed.

2018 is going to be the year where Facebook will see big changes, as planned by company’s chief. But interestingly those big changes have just widened their circle and the company is revising its advertisements policies for financial services and products. A business news page of the company states that all advertisements for cryptocurrency exchanges, initial coin offerings, and binary options trading from any Facebook platform are being effectively banned.

The platform of Facebook which will stop presenting ads from crypto entities and misleading financial services includes Facebook app itself, Instagram, Audience Network, and Messenger, while WhatsApp clearly does not support any sort of ads on its basic platform.

According to Rob Leathern, Product Management Director,

“Two of our core advertising principles outline our belief that ads should be safe, and that we build for people first. Misleading or deceptive ads have no place on Facebook.”

It might sound like a sweeping policy, and that’s because it is. Facebook claims the policy was designed to be broad, so it might be refined in the future. According to Facebook, the primary and most important goal here is to protect consumers from potential scams. Accommodating potentially hazardous financial service companies isn’t a part of the equation.

As interest in cryptocurrency is surging by the passage of time, it makes sense that Facebook would slam the door on ads that could prey on its users. As Leathern said,

“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.”

People can report any ad on Facebook they don’t like by clicking on the top right corner of the ad. Cryptocurrencies have a complex model for regulating as their value is based on speculations. This can be true about scammy crypto exchanges but what about the blockchain technology, a point to ponder.

Image Source: TNW