Starting March 27, Twitter will no longer allow advertisements of cryptocurrencies on its platform. The social media network announced the ban on adverts for initial coin offerings (ICOs) or sale of cryptocurrency tokens on Monday, and immediately sent bitcoin’s value below $8,000.
In a statement, the company said it was committed to making sure that its community was safe. “As such,” the statement read, “we have revised our policy to ban any ad that is related to cryptocurrencies.”
Under the new policy, Twitter will prohibit ICOs ads, as well as token sales. Billions of dollars have been raised by some startups through initial coin offerings in the highly unregulated and volatile market.
The social media giant said that it was aware that cryptocurrency ads (both paid and organic) are often associated with fraud or deception. As such, the company said it was would proactively implement a number of security measures to deter the ads from appearing on its network.
The move by Twitter to ban cryptocurrency-related adverts on its networks follows that of Facebook and Google, which took a similar step earlier this year in an attempt to protect their user communities. Facebook restricted crypto-related ads back in February, while Google plans to roll out the ban in June this year.
Regulators have continuously warned that some cryptocurrencies could be fraudulent, and raised concerns on their highly speculative nature. During the G20 summit that was took place last week in Buenos Aires, Argentina, leaders were not able to come to a consensus on how the world of cryptocurrencies could be supervised.
Adverts on how to venture in to the cryptocurrency world have appeared everywhere including on the American transport network as their demand continues to rise. Twitter’s new policy, however, will not affect cryptocurrency secure wallets or exchange services offered by any public company that is listed on the major stock exchange markets.
