It has been an interesting time for Facebook and its relationship with cryptocurrencies ever since they made a precedent setting move to ban adverts on their platform that had anything to do with cryptocurrency in January this year.
The social media giant has since updated their policies to once again allow cryptocurrencies to advertise on Facebook, although it has continued its ban on ICOs. This move is being seen as a positive for the cryptocurrency space, which has earned back a major advertising platform on which it can reach a large number of users.
However, behind the scenes, all is not as it seems as cryptocurrency-related content continues to get caught in the web.
Setting a precedent
On January 30, it was announced that Facebook would be updating its advertising policy prohibiting ads that use “misleading or deceptive promotional practices,” this includes ads of cryptocurrencies and ICOs.
Even back then, the message from the social media giant was confusing, as the decision by Facebook came just after its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a personal post that he had a desire to study cryptocurrencies further:
‘Intentionally broad’ ban
The post announcing the ban did mention that the policies would be revisited later down the line, and that it began as ‘intentionally broad,’ however, this direct U-turn has come as quite a surprising move from Facebook, even if it is only currently being paid in lip service.
The move from Facebook opened the floodgates for other such social and internet platforms to follow on and also ban anything crypto-related.
In March, Google took on Facebook’s reasoning for banning cryptocurrency ads. Under Google’s updated financial products policy, no advertisements for “cryptocurrencies and related content (including but not limited to initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets, and cryptocurrency trading advice),” would be accepted.
Twitter then followed suit, confirming long-standing rumours that it would also stop all forms of cryptocurrency advertising. Twitter blocked out ICOs and other token sales, as well as advertisements for exchanges and wallet services, unless they were public companies and listed on major stock exchanges.
The announcement of the Facebook ban, in January, saw Bitcoin drop, as it went from $11,200 to $8,800 over a few days after it was announced.
Bitcoin fell below the $8,000 mark in March on the news, and Ethereum went under $600 when Twitter and Google announced their bans.