After Google, Twitter and Facebook effectively closed down social media advertising as a way for ICOs to get their message out, now Mailchimp, one of the world’s biggest email marketing platforms, is following suit.
Yesterday a Mailchimp spokes-person announced that the outfit was changing its policies, stating that ICOs and cryptocurrency businesses are now join gambling services and “make money online businesses” on the list of prohibited industries.
According to the company’s Acceptable Use Policy, it will not allow, “ businesses involved in any aspect of the sale, transaction, exchange, storage, marketing, or production of cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies, and any digital assets related to an Initial Coin Offering” to use Mailchimp to “support any of those activities.”
It appears that the ban is currently focused on businesses marketing cryptocurrency services or ICOs, with the distribution of information about the sectors still allowed.
In reply to a question posed on its Twitter account, Mailchimp pointed out that the new policy does not imply a blanket bank:
The company also told Futurism that the new policies do not stop “discussion of related topics in messages sent through our platform” and that “journalists and publications may send cryptocurrency-related information.” provided that they are not “involved in the production, sale, exchange, storage, or marketing of cryptocurrencies.”
As has become commonplace with these blanket bans, Mailchimp acknowledged the baby before throwing it out with the bathwater. “We recognize that blockchain technology is in its infancy and has tremendous potential,” they said, but on the other hand, “the promotion and exchange of cryptocurrencies is too frequently associated with scams, fraud, phishing, and potentially misleading.“
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