Google to ban cryptocurrency advertisements from June – bitcoin fell 3.5% below 8,000 USD
Google will ban advertisements for cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings from June as part of a move to clamp down on unregulated financial products. The move follows similar measures by Facebook in January which banned all advertisements for cryptocurrencies and ICOs – a crowdfunding mechanism using digital currencies – after it decided many of them were being used to mislead potential customers, writes Financial Times.
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and related ICOs have exploded in popularity over the past year but the area is unregulated and open to scams. Google said in a blog post that it had “updated several policies to address ads in unregulated or speculative financial products like binary options, cryptocurrency, foreign exchange markets and contracts for difference (or CFDs)”.
”This year, we updated several policies to address ads in unregulated or speculative financial products like binary options, cryptocurrency, foreign exchange markets and contracts for difference (or CFDs).”, according to the Google announcement.
The company said it will ban advertisements for “cryptocurrencies and related content” including cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets and trading advice.As part of the update, the search company said it took down more 100 bad adverts per second in 2017, or a total of more than 3.2 billion adverts that violated its policies.
Speaking to CNBC, Google’s director of sustainable ads Scott Spencer explained the move as a precautionary measure to safeguard consumers.
“We don’t have a crystal ball to know where the future is going to go with cryptocurrencies, but we’ve seen enough consumer harm or potential for consumer harm that it’s an area that we want to approach with extreme caution.”
The announcement had an immediate impact on the price of the criyptocurrency asets. As you can see in the graphic below, the price of bitcoin expressed in USD fell within one day with 3.5%, to less than 8,000 from more than 9,100.
The official announcement of Google
New restricted financial products policy (June 2018)
In June 2018, Google will update the Financial services policy to restrict the advertisement of Contracts for Difference, rolling spot forex, and financial spread betting. In addition, ads for the following will no longer be allowed to serve:
. Binary options and synonymous products
. Cryptocurrencies and related content (including but not limited to initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets, and cryptocurrency trading advice)
Ads for aggregators and affiliates for the following will no longer be allowed to serve:
. Contracts for Difference
. Rolling spot forex
. Financial spread betting
. Binary options and synonymous products
. Cryptocurrencies and related content.
Advertisers offering Contracts for Difference, rolling spot forex, and financial spread betting will be required to be certified by Google before they can advertise through AdWords. Certification is only available in certain countries.
To be certified by Google, advertisers will need to:
. Be licensed by the relevant financial services authority in the country or countries they are targeting
. Ensure their ads and landing pages comply with all AdWords policies
. Comply with relevant legal requirements, including those related to complex speculative financial products
Advertisers can request certification with Google starting March 2018 when the application form is published.
This policy will apply globally to all accounts that advertise these financial products.
Anders Olofsson – former Head of Payments Finastra
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
