Google follows steps by Facebook which banned ads from cryptocurrency-related operations including ICOs and binary options. Its ban takes effect this coming June.
Google is next after Facebook to crack down on crypto-related ads according to their latest announcements. It says in its annual “trust and safety” ads report that many companies advertising binary options, cryptocurrencies and ICOs are not operating in good faith. The ban takes effect this coming June 2018.
Google will ban ads for cryptocurrencies and related content including those relating to ICOs, exchanges, wallets and trading services. It will investigate rolling spot forex and financial spread betting. The company may be seen as wanting to improve the ecosystem so it appears safer, now that they earn roughly 84% of its total revenue from advertising.
Google’s director of sustainable ads, Scott Spencer, told CNBC that the company has witnessed consumer harm and now they need to take actions.
“We don’t have a crystal ball to know where the future is going to go with cryptocurrencies. But we’ve seen enough consumer harm or potential for consumer harm. However that it’s an area that we want to approach with extreme caution”.
This means that even companies with legitimate cryptocurrency offerings. Since it will be not be able to advertise on Google’s ad platforms. It will also place ads on third-party websites taking some revenue off of the advertising.
But Google has a policy against offending ads. Last year, they took down 3.2 billion ads compared to half or 1.7 billion ads in the year before, for violating policies.
Nevertheless, it is entirely impossible for these platforms to ban ads entirely given the immense loopholes. A search in Facebook reveals there are many crypto ads already. In fact, that is why many scammers in other businesses are able to advertise all the time and their ads never get taken down.
It is unclear if Twitter will follow suit given Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey has said the company will not ban the ads previously. There is no doubt that there is pressure to follow suit, coming from … as reported previously.
Twitter is unlikely to follow suit, at least for now, given the CEO’s association with Square Inc. However which just introduced in-app Bitcoin trading on its app. Nomura-Instinet analyst Dan Dolev said that 60 percent of the app’s merchants are willing to accept Bitcoin payments.
Further, square is looking at other crypto and blockchain patents and investments.
