Facebook is banning ads that promote bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in an effort to protect its users from “financial products and services frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices".
The platform has recently been criticised for hosting dubious cryptocurrency-related ads, particularly those that appeared to promote get-rich-quick schemes and potential scams.
The social networking giant said it will not display ads for financial products, specifically virtual currencies and “initial coin offerings”, a fundraising tactic that new cryptocurrencies use to attract fresh investors.
“We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception,” Facebook product management director Rob Leathern said in a blog post.
As a result, bitcoin's price slumped on Tuesday night, falling 10% to trade as low as US$9,810 - a two month low.
The major spike in prices last year of bitcoin and many alternative cryptocurrencies has sparked a surge of interest among investors and companies of all kinds.
This has led to led to scams and wild price fluctuations that have cost a lot of people a lot of money.
https://twitter.com/procointools/status/952282713855160320Earlier this month, BuzzFeed News highlighted how fraudsters were getting rich by deliberately spreading false information to affect the price of their holdings using social media, scam news sites and private chat apps.
It also comes just weeks after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly endorsed cryptocurrency as something that can "take power from centralised systems and put it back into people's hands."
Want to know more about bitcoin? Check out the February issue of AdNews Magazine
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