Facebook Reverses Ban on Crypto Advertising
Facebook has officially reversed its ban on cryptocurrency-related advertisements. The world’s largest social network announced the news on June 26 effective immediately.
Clearly, there was too much ad revenue potential in the crypto industry for Facebook to ignore. Facebook isn’t opening crypto advertisements to anyone, however. Crypto-related advertisements will only be available to be posted by “pre-approved advisers”. You’ll need to go through an application process to post crypto ads on Facebook.
Facebook first banned crypto advertisements in January after months of ICO scams, pyramid schemes, and shady cryptocurrencies were promoted across the platform. In a post announcing the ban, Facebook described how companies in the space were “not currently operating in good faith.”
Back in January, Facebook admitted that there were legitimate companies in the space and that the ban was intentionally broad.
The original policy was designed to:
“improve the integrity and security of our ads, and to make it harder for scammers to profit from a presence on Facebook.”
That’s why Facebook banned all crypto advertisements. At the time, Facebook admitted that they would revisit the policy over time.
Now, six months later, Facebook is apparently ready to handle the onslaught of cryptocurrency ads that are sure to hit the platform. Facebook is confident its content and ad filtering systems will catch deceptive crypto advertisements before they target users.
One way in which Facebook is enhancing the legitimacy of crypto ads is by making advertisers go through an application process. Facebook will ask advertisers to include various details on that application, including whether they’re a publicly-traded company or which licenses they’ve obtained.
As TechCrunch first reported;
“How thoroughly this information is fact-checked by Facebook staff remains unclear.”
“The company reminded users in the same announcement that they should continue to flag ad content that violates its guidelines. In other words, expect some bad ads to get through.”
Certain crypto advertisers will not be permitted to advertise on the world’s largest social network. However, Facebook insists that it will adjust its system over time in response to customer feedback.
Facebook banned crypto advertisements in January, and Google followed shortly thereafter in March. Could Google reverse its stance on crypto advertisements as well? Google quietly changed its advertising policy back in June 2018. You can view their updated policy on financial products here. They still ban “cryptocurrencies and related content”, however, which means most cryptocurrency companies cannot advertise with Google.
Meanwhile, both Facebook and Google have maintained their ban on binary options trading platforms – platforms that are widely criticized for being scams.
The crypto universe is pleased to see that Facebook has changed their position
Re #facebook lifting ban…
next will be #google and then all the big boys will be back advertising, saying this and that and we are the first regulated blah blah then we will have the pump
None of them can ignore $crypto
Watch it fly.
— Phillip Nunn 🚀 (@PhillipNunnUK) June 26, 2018
Good news is coming back:
1. @a16z $300m Crypto fund
2. Facebook reversing Crypto ad ban
3. Norman started the Tether printing press
4. @APompliano is coming backThings are warming up…
— Peter McCormack 🏴 (@WhatBitcoinDid) June 26, 2018
BREAKING: Facebook is reversing its ban on #crypto-related ads.
In and of itself this isn't a huge deal, but I'm hopeful it will send a signal to others that crypto is here to stay. Blockchain tech, tokenization & cryptocurrency will touch every aspect of our lives.#BULLISH
— Chris Koerner | ICO Advisor | Altcoin Expert (@noBScrypto) June 26, 2018
