With the announcement that Facebook is banning all ads that focus on cryptocurrency on their platform, lots people got worried. Their ban includes ICOs, which is especially disheartening. It should be pointed out, however, that everything will still be business as usual for Facebook’s many cryptocurrency-based groups. This new policy has some users even talking about a boycott.
Facebook Officially Pro-Crypto
Facebook isn’t anti-crypto in any way, shape or form. In fact, Mark Zuckerberg himself has hinted that he is interested in implementing his own token in the future. His statement was quite broad in scope, but the overall message is clear: Facebook is actually pro-crypto in many ways. Why, then, have they gone out of their way to seemingly crack down on the adoption of cryptography ads by its users? This all stems from the announcement that Facebook will also be tweaking their algorithms to ensure that less ads are shown to its users in general. This is very much a step back to a time when Facebook was all about friends hanging out with friends. It’s also a good thing.
Tweaking Happens All the Time
Not many people are aware of it, but the platform constantly adjusts the algorithms it uses to disperse trending stories. They also allow people to see posts that are most likely to be pleasing to them. Additionally, teams perform testing on the platform’s users in order to see what effect these adjustments will have.
Facebook's Users Trust What they Read on the Platform
One of these tests involved a group of users selected without their knowledge. For the length of the test, half were shown overwhelmingly positive status from their friends, while the other half were shown more negative posts. What they found was that the group who was shown positive posts began making more positive posts themselves, and vice versa. This, along with countless other trials, suggest that users overwhelmingly trust the platform.
Predatory Crypto Ads Too Widespread
This has everything to do with their policy to ban cryptocurrency-based ads for the time being. With so many newcomers becoming more interested in cryptocurrencies, many have turned to Facebook in order to learn more about them. Predators, eyeing an overwhelmingly unregulated market and naive investors, saw an opportunity in this. Scammers engaging in everything from phishing to pump and dump schemes began to spread ads targeting Facebook’s users. That’s when they realized they had a big problem. Their algorithms were allowing detrimental ads to slip through the cracks, thus posing a potentially significant risk.
It's All Part of Facebook's Process
In order to protect its users, Facebook decided just to blanket ban all cryptocurrency-based advertising. This, however, won’t be a long-term ban, as has been stated by Facebook itself. This will give them time to sift through all the data they have collected and determine the most effective way to pinpoint and block predatory ads while allowing the rest to be made available. It’s easy to be wary of a big corporation. Furthermore, there are a lot of angry advertisers who think they have been unfairly targeted.
Facebook Crypto Ads In The Long Run
In time, Facebook shows every sign of lifting their current ban on cryptocurrency advertising. They must, of course, properly test and vet their new algorithms first. This will ultimately benefit the platform and its users as a whole. There are still plenty of cryptocurrency-based groups on Facebook that provide excellent resources and their numbers are only growing.
