Google bans crypto-currency adverts (in June)

[IntMD]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43398410

 

So Google are going to be banning adverts for various risky financial transactions, not just things to do with cryptocurrencies. They're also going to be restricting ads for CFDs and spread betting too (FYI - don't ever get in to either of these unless you really know what you are doing.).

Quote

Google has moved to ban crypto-currency advertising from its platforms.

 

The move will affect promotional campaigns for initial coin offerings, Bitcoin exchanges, digital wallets to store the assets and trading advice.

 

A notice said the policy would be introduced in June but did not give an explanation why.

 

The BBC understands that Google decided to act because it felt there was a lack of appropriate consumer protections for highly speculative and complex trades.

 

It follows a similar move by Facebook in January, which said many firms in the sector were acting in bad faith.

Google's decision will affect ads displayed both in its search results and YouTube, as well as those placed on third-party sites via its ad platforms.

 

The value of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple all dipped after the news emerged at about 04:00 GMT.

 

Quote

Ahead of the announcement, some users of Google's AdWords service had reported a drop-off in the performance of their crypto-currency campaigns, although the tech giant denied having made any policy changes at that point.

 

Google has also said it will tighten its rules for ads relating to other financial products including spread betting and contracts-for-difference - in which sellers promise to provide compensation for an asset's gain in value over a set period of time, and buyers to cover a loss.

 

It said AdWords users would have to be licensed by the relevant regulators in the countries they are targeting and be certified by Google itself.

This is a pretty good thing from my point of view. Lets face it, you can lose a lot of money from spread betting and the like, in a short period of time, and people are generally morons. At least this way, they have the chance of losing their money to people who are actually licensed in their jurisdiction instead....

 

[Ginger_]

This is good for everyone. Some of those icos are just steal your money and pretend we never existed scams. 

 

It's not only throwing shade on the entire crypto market, people are losing a lot of money as a result of their ignorance. 

[TacoSenpai]

Not invested in the crypto market or anything and I wouldn't advise anyone to bet the farm on some random crypto ad they found on the internet but I also don't exactly trust google either particularly when the company that takes so much private data from its consumers (mind you thats why their services are "free") wants to talk about "consumer protections".  

[DuckDodgers]

Since most of the crypto volume is driven by currency speculation and scams, this move is actually a welcome cool down for the market. Crypto-currencies need to transition more into the real economy and gain tangible value that people can relate to, beyond the abstract curiosity and casual gambling opportunity.

[GoldenLag]

seems fair enough. Google shouldnt be advocating anything that has risky financial consequenses. This goes for , gambling, stocks, crypto, currency-trade and so fourth. this will only come with healthy consequenses. Though strictly calling it a ban on crypto is kinda clickbaity, not that is too much of an issue, but i thought id put it ut there. The rise in Crypto has made this issue more appearant to google, and it is nice that they are adressing it.

[mr moose]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if there isn't some legal reasoning behind this also.  Some countries have stricter laws on providing financial advice.  I imagine those laws get blurry when it comes to advertising, but why would they take the risk when they don't have a shortage on advertisers.