In an update on its Advertising Policies page, Facebook has created a new policy that prohibits ads that promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency.
According to Rob Leathern, Facebook’s Product Management Director in a recent post, ”
“We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception. That said, there are many companies who are advertising binary options, ICOs and cryptocurrencies that are not currently operating in good faith.
This policy is intentionally broad while we work to better detect deceptive and misleading advertising practices, and enforcement will begin to ramp up across our platforms including Facebook, Audience Network and Instagram.”
He continues “We also understand that we may not catch every ad that should be removed under this new policy, and encourage our community to report content that violates our Advertising Policies. People can report any ad on Facebook by clicking on the upper right-hand corner of the ad.
This policy is part of an ongoing effort to improve the integrity and security of our ads, and to make it harder for scammers to profit from a presence on Facebook.”
Examples of some these ads include the following:
- “Start binary options trading now and recieve a 10-risk free trades bonus!”
- “click here to learn more about our no-risk crytocurrency that enables instant payments to anyone in the world.”
- “New ICO! Buy tokens at a 15% discount NOW!”
- “Use your retirement funds to buy Bitcoin!”
Regulators worldwide have begun to examine the cryptocurrency space, as more and more scams are being reported. A lot of companies have come up with ICOs enticing people to jump on board at a discount, and they then disappear after raking in some money from unsuspecting people. And they have no recourse.
