Google Updates Ads Policy On Regulated Crypto Exchange

If you’re an avid crypto investor or at least a supporter, you might remember those awkward developments from last Spring, when major tech companies like Google put a hold on Bitcoin-related ads. The ban on financial products and services was imposed due to an increase in misleading ICOs and fraudulent promotional offerings, leading to a distorted reality about cryptocurrencies online.

Recently, the world’s leading social media platform, Facebook, announced that it will ease the ban on coin offerings and some crypto ads, provided the advertising companies have an onboarding request with specific details about their services.

Synchronized Reversal, Almost

This week, the search engine giant announced a similar move, and it is set to end the prohibition on advertising of virtual currencies. The company will update its policy to allow certain BTC and Co. information to appear in SERP. The turnaround takes effect in October 2018 as part of Google’s “Update to Financial products and services policy.”

Important to realize is that the initial ban came as part of a wider security crackdown since, at that time, virtual currency “get rich” schemes presented clear danger to uneducated “investors” all around the internet. Unfortunately, the emerging crypto industry seemed like a true opportunity for various criminal activities such as fake initial coin offerings or investment scams.

Partial Retrogression

Pursuant to the new Google cryptocurrency ad policy, the backslide will cover only cryptocurrency exchange platforms. Adverts relating to ICOs, wallets, binary options, and trading services will remain prohibited. Furthermore, the regulatory on cryptocurrency exchange platforms will allow advertising in Japan and the United States. Analogous to Facebook, the policy will require from advertisers to be certified with Google in order to launch their ads in a specific country.

It’s Viral Too

Like everything else in the IT industry, many leading internet corporations, such as Twitter, Snapchat and Yandex also prohibited cryptocurrency advertising on their social media platforms. In fact, certain blockchain associations from South Korea, China and Russia decided to sue three major tech companies in March 2018 for abuse of power and cartel collusion...

It is believed that other mediums will lift their bans on digital assets in the next period, since sudden change of policies is usually a viral trend in the industry.

Source:

“Google Reverses Cryptocurrency Ad Ban – New Policy Takes Effect In October 2018”, Osato Avan-Nomayo, ethereumworldnews.com, September 25, 2018.