Twitter has joined a growing list of companies that are restricting cryptocurrency advertising on their channel. The social media giant has stopped short of a blanket advertising ban but has introduced restrictions on ICO and token sales specifically.
They join Reddit, Facebook, and Google, in restricting ads, and the company has said that they have made the move in a bid to prevent fraud and scams from surfacing on the platform. They have previously moved to prevent bots and accounts that attempt to solicit crypto payments from users, although this did cause some problems with genuine accounts, and there is still a rash of crypto bot accounts on the platform. The company has said that companies found on major exchanges will not be affected by the ban. Some reports have suggested that wallets and exchanges will be affected, although the original release doesn’t indicate that this is true.
This certainly isn’t the first time that cryptocurrency has been hit with advertising bans. Reddit was the first to impose such restrictions, followed by Facebook on 30th January 2018 and Google on 14th March 2018. It is the latest move by Internet companies that are looking to protect their users and presumably protect themselves from litigious action.
Previous bans, and the Twitter ban, have led to reductions in price. As you can see on the chart, prices slipped about $1,200, or 11%, following Facebook’s ban and about $1,000 (10%) on Google’s move. So far, prices have slipped around $500 (6%) on the news that Twitter is following suit, although prices were already moving in this direction.
The diminished effect would suggest that traders are getting used to being hit with this kind of news, and many believe that preventing fraudulent ICOs from being able to scam money out of prospective investors is a positive move, rather than a negative one.
