The ban on crypto-currency ads by Google ends next month – TechCrunch

Google is canceling its ban on crypto-currency advertising – following a similar move made by Facebook earlier this summer, reports CNBC. In March, Google was one of the first major platforms to announce that it would no longer broadcast crypto-currency announcements, due to great caution in an industry where there is considerable potential for the consumer.

Facebook, Twitter and even Snapchat had also banned crypto-money ads for similar reasons.

But Facebook has moved away from its general ban in June, when it said it would ban more all crypto-currency ads, but prefer to allow those of "pre-approved advertisers". However, it excluded ads promoting binary options and initial coin offerings (ICOs).

Google is now following its own policy change. The update was announced today, we confirmed.

Google's policy still prohibits ICOs, portfolios and trading advice, reports CNBC, citing Google's updated policy page pointing to a list of banned products.

But the policy update of October 2018 indicates that "regulated cryptocurrency exchanges" will be allowed to advertise in the United States and Japan.

To do this, advertisers will need to be certified with Google for the specific country where their ads will appear, a process that begins in October. The policy will apply to all accounts that advertise these types of financial products, according to Google.

Prohibiting cryptocurrency ads from major platforms was a good measure in terms of consumer protection, due to the amount of fraud and spam in the industry. According to the FTC, consumers lost $ 532 million in cryptocurrency-related scams during the first two months of 2018. An agency official also warned that consumers could lose more than $ 3 billion to the end of

But for ad – dependent platforms, like Facebook and Google, there is so much money to be gained here. It is clear that they wanted to find a way to allow some of these advertisers to come back. Google's parent, Alphabet, accounts for approximately 86 percent of its revenue, said CNBC, and reported more than $ 54 billion in advertising revenue in the first half.

Google has not yet responded to a request for comment.