Facebook has created a new policy which effectively bans ads for cryptocurrency, as well as other financial products.
The reason for this policy change, Facebook says, is to honor one of its core advertising principles that ads should be safe. Ads for cryptocurrency are frequently tied to misleading and deceptive practices, the company believes.
Facebook’s new policy reads as follows:
”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.”
Examples of prohibited ads include:
- “Start binary options trading now and receive a 10-risk free trades bonus!”
- “Click here to learn more about our no-risk cryptocurrency that enables instant payments to anyone in the world.”
- “New ICO! Buy tokens at a 15% discount NOW!”
- “Use your retirement funds to buy Bitcoin!”
If Facebook’s new policy sounds too broad, that’s intentional. As the company ramps up enforcement it will work to detect more specific types of deceptive and misleading ad practices. The policy will also extend to ads on Facebook-owned Instagram.
The underlying goal is to make it harder for scammers to thrive on the world’s biggest social network. However, this is not a guarantee that everyone will be caught. Facebook encourages users to continue reporting ads that violate its policies.
