Facebook Bans Cryptocurrency Ads to Prevent Fraudulent Transactions
Cryptocurrency off late has taken the internet by storm. More and more people are curious to know about the virtual currency post the rise of bitcoins. A lot many other cryptocurrencies were also talked about, some even advertising about returns and benefits. Amidst all the rise and fall updates, Facebook has informed that it will ban all the ads which promote cryptocurrencies.
The company has adopted a new advertising policy, the one that prohibits ads that promote those types of products and services “that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive practices,” Facebook Product Management Director Rob Leathern wrote in a blog post. These will include products and services that associate with deceptive promotional offers, initial coin offerings, and other cryptocurrencies. This move is an effort to fight off scams related to cryptocurrency.
Since all of these dealings happen digitally, the chances of fraud are also high. The initial coin offerings (ICO) are used by companies to raise funds by selling the assets to investors. These encourage people to buy new cryptocurrencies even before they are launch and promise a greater return as the coin will become popular. There are certain legitimate ads which run on Facebook but there are certain others which are fraudulent. These ads usually spam your feed and those big numbers promising returns need to be kept at bay. “We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception,” Leathern wrote. “That said, there are many companies who are advertising binary options, ICOs and cryptocurrencies that are not currently operating in good faith.” Facebook is also encouraging people to report content that violates their policy.
A recent case would be of an ICO offered by a Texas company called Arise Bank. They were accused of relying on celebrity endorsements to cheat investors out of $600 million of its goal of $1 billion for a currency it called “AriseCoin.” Raising money using an ICO has been already banned in countries of South Korea and China. The company has also said that the policy will modify to allow the genuine businesses advertise again. Under the new policy, advertising using phrases such as "New ICO! Buy tokens at a 15% discount NOW!" or "Use your retirement funds to buy Bitcoin!" would not be permitted, Facebook said.
Seeing the popularity the cryptocurrency is gaining today, it was said that Reliance is also coming up with their digital currency called the Jio coin. However, the company has denied these reports and called them fake. A Jio coin app was seen on the Google store which was soliciting investments from people. "Reliance Jio would like to inform the public and media that there are no such apps offered by the company or its affiliates / associates. Any such apps using the JioCoin name are fake and people are advised to refrain from dealing with any of them," Reliance Jio said in a statement.
It thus becomes very important to be careful about the fake cryptocurrencies and advertisements which promote such kinds. Since Facebook is used by a maximum number of people it becomes equally important to keep such fraudulent techniques at bay.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 01, 2018 12:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).