Odisha News Insight

Twitter to ban cryptocurrency ads from Tuesday

Twitter has confirmed that it will begin blocking cryptocurrency-related ads on the platform from Tuesday even as the micro-blogging site updated its policy relating to such advertisements.

“We are committed to ensuring the safety of the Twitter community. As such, we have added a new policy for Twitter Ads relating to cryptocurrency. Under this new policy, the advertisement of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and token sales will be prohibited globally,” The Verge quoted the company as saying.

“The policy will be fully enforceable among all advertisers within a month,” Twitter said, adding that all ICOs and token sales would be banned, and cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets would be restricted to only public companies listed on major stock markets.

Earlier this month, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey acknowledged that the company was facing an issue wherein copying verified Twitter accounts to trick cryptocurrency users was becoming increasingly prevalent.

Dorsey said the company was working to fix the cryptocurrency scam on Twitter in which several users were tricked and their digital assets were stolen.

Banning cryptocurrency-related ads follows Facebook and Google’s announcement that they would ban advertisements for cryptocurrencies and other “speculative financial products” across their ad platforms.

In January, social media giant Facebook banned all ads promoting cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and ICOs.

Google’s ban on such advertisements would come into force from June.

“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),” Scott Spencer, Google’s Director of Sustainable Ads, had said.

“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,” Google said. (IANS) 

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