Facebook is banning all ads that promote cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, in an effort to prevent people from advertising what the company is calling “financial products and services frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices.”
Original Article on Recode
image source: www.newsbtc.com
OK people, don't panic or start screaming about how Zuck and Co are suppressing cryptocurrencies. This appears to be a play to bring some credibility to Facebook's long embattled advertising, which has often been scrutinized for not knowing who they are allowing to advertise on their platform.
Imagine owning a website or blog and allowing scams or shady products to be advertised on your website. You're getting paid, so why worry right? Wrong. If it's showing up on your site, your visitors will affiliate all the content their shown with the website. This means your credibility can be dragged down when the quality of advertisers goes down.
Personally, I'd love to see more restrictions and due diligence done on online advertising. I've bought advertising for my business before and it's incredible how little information you need to provide to be able to get advertising space. I can only imagine how many people with questionable ethics have used online advertising to take advantage of impulsive and easily influenced ("manipulated") people online.... OK, individual accountability is key and platform owners shouldn't be expected to "protect" people from all the less than honest marketers out there, but I for one would be much happier seeing the quality of ads improve.
Anyone else getting sick of seeing ads for cryptocurrencies, ICOs, or "The Next Bitcoin" on every website they go to nowadays?
Wow what a great news!!!
Crazy I diden't know this yet!
They've been taking a lot of heat since Trump got elected for their ad platform.
Some of it almost feels like a knee-jerk reaction, but I feel like this is pre-empting the time when there's a big crash and people blame facebook for letting 'con artists' advertise on its platform.
I wonder if companies like Merrill Lynch and Freddie Mac would be allowed to advertise on Facebook today.
One of the most insightful things I've ever heard in regards to technology and media in general: it doesnt matter if you own the content, true power comes from owning the platform.
Facebook is in clean-up mode, but if they go too far with rigorous criteria and obvious bias, then expect them to catch flack for suppressing news, products, etc.
I wonder if their worried about all the Steemit-like platforms that are being developed.
I speculated in that in another thread. It certainly wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. MySpace lost their dominance to Facebook without a fight, but Facebook has shareholders who will demand action to ensure the business defends itself against revenue loss and being unseated as the leader in social media.