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Facebook has had a rough go at it lately. The controversy surrounding a data breach with developer Cambridge Analytica spurring a Congressional hearing aside, Facebook seems to still be reeling from a decision to update its advertising policy back in January.

Facebook Ads Ban

"New Ads Policy: Improving Integrity and Security of Financial Product and Services Ads" slammed the hammer down on any crypto related advertising on Facebook. At that time, Facebook put out a blanket ban on all crypto industry related advertisements, instead of just targeting the Scam filled ICO portion of the otherwise thriving industry.

The Original Ban

Rob Leathern, Product Management Director of Facebook is quoted back in January in the aforementioned post with a policy update including, "Prohibited Financial Products and Services" the Policy states that

"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."

Clearly, the aim of Facebook at the time was to shut down any cryptocurrency related ads not limited only to Initial Coin Offerings. Did Facebook miss the ad revenue from all of the legitimate blockchain powered FinTech startups that are not ICO related and are actual thriving real-world companies? The new "Updates to Our Prohibited Financial Products and Services Policy" seems to reflect as much. Lethern says in the new post on June 26,

"So starting June 26, we’ll be updating our policy to allow ads that promote cryptocurrency and related content from pre-approved advertisers. But we’ll continue to prohibit ads that promote binary options and initial coin offerings."

So why the change?

This whole turn of events may actually be what it seems, Facebook protecting itself and users from scams both on and off of the platform. Skeptics are not quite as sure. Many in the industry have been speculating that Facebook is reorganizing its crypto ads policy to pave the way for a new social media type coin backed and funded by Facebook itself. The rumor mill is just that, however, and nothing is posted to support as such. Facebook has begun to support cryptocurrency related ads again, however, the application process must be completed and each company vying for ads on the social giant's platform must be vetted by the Facebook team before any campaigns will begin. Is this good for crypto as a whole? I believe it is yes. Are there underlying circumstances and reasons for the current turn of events? I guess only time will tell. Comment below whether a Facebook coin is something that you could not only get behind but would actually purchase and use yourself!

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