Blog #10: Cryptocurrency the next victim of Ad Bans

Cryptocurrencies are now facing an advertising ban from all the major platforms. According to an article in Wired, the first major channel to ban cryptocurrency ads was Reddit in 2016 later followed by Facebook in January. Google followed suit and issued bans on all its other platforms including: Snap, Twitter, and MailChimp. Surprisingly, the article argues that cryptocurrencies may actually benefit from an ad ban. Given the amount of fraud, limiting the amount of cryptocurrencies ads may help weed out the bad actors and help the industry gain credibility.

So what obligations do social media platforms have to society and to corporate america?

"Social media advertising budgets have doubled worldwide over the past 2 years—going from $16 billion U.S. in 2014 to $31 billion in 2016 (Hootsuite.com)."

Given that social media and online platforms now are the main source of advertising spend, is it fair for them to ban certain industries? Are they becoming the next set of regulators of what consumers see and have access to?

In this case, the vast amount of fraud in the cryptocurrency market seems to justify the ban on the industry as a whole, but going forward the power and influence of these platforms will need to be monitored.

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/cryptocurrency-industry-might-benefit-from-ad-ban/