Google’s Director of Sustainable Ads – Scott Spencer, in his latest blog post, has announced major changes to their Ad Policy pertaining to Finance related services. This blanket policy change also includes a ban on cryptocurrency related services which include ICOs (initial coin offerings), crypto-wallets and crypto related trading advice.
This move is a major blow to the legitimate crypto services which have been using Google’s ad platform to serve ads to potential customers. The latest change in ad policy prevents these services from using Google ad products. According to an official post, the latest policy changes are effective from June 2018.
Describing it as a precautionary measure to safeguard users, Google’s Scott Spencer has told CNBC that, “We don’t have a crystal ball to know where the future is going to go with cryptocurrencies, but we’ve seen enough consumer harm or potential for consumer harm that it’s an area that we want to approach with extreme caution.”
This particular approach from Google is in line with Facebook’s decision to ban Crypto-related ads on their ad platform. The main concern here is the increase in the number of misleading crypto ads and scams over the past year. While the cryptocurrency markets are growing at a rapid pace, it is still an unregulated area wherein we need to tread carefully.
Apart from cryptocurrency content, Google has also banned services promoting other high-risk services like binary options, Forex services, contracts of difference (CFDs) and a plethora of gambling-related ad content.