Twitter has become the latest firm to ban cryptocurrency adverts on its site in the hopes of reducing fraud.
The site follows in the footsteps of both Facebook and Google , who earlier this year banned the virtual currency adverts.
In a statement, Twitter said: “We are committed to ensuring the safety of the Twitter community.
"As such, we have added a new policy for Twitter Ads relating to cryptocurrency.”
The new policy prohibits adverts for initial currency offerings (ICOs) - a method used by some startups to raise huge amounts of money.
The Twitter statement added: "We know that this type of content is often associated with deception and fraud, both organic and paid, and are proactively implementing a number of signals to prevent these types of accounts from engaging with others in a deceptive manner.”
Following Twitter’s announcement, the value of Bitcoin dropped a staggering eight per cent to $7,929 (£5,584), according to Bloomberg.
Google is joining Facebook in banning advertising for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Google, the largest provider of digital advertising on the internet, announced on Tuesday that it plans to change its advertising policy for certain financial services, including cryptocurrencies, starting in June. The new restriction would apply both to space on Google’s platforms, like YouTube, and to third-party websites where Google sells advertising space.
Facebook announced in January that it would ban all ads for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in order to stop misleading and deceptive promotions. Together, Google and Facebook account for the majority of advertising on the internet in terms of revenue.
The short announcement on Google’s advertising policies page did not specify why Google planned to turn away that advertising. The company said the ban also applied to content related to cryptocurrencies “including but not limited to initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets and cryptocurrency trading advice.”
The frenzy around Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has raised concerns about scammers using online advertisements to recruit potential marks enticed by the surge in prices for most virtual currencies. Advertising for new virtual currencies exploded late last year when prices jumped.
Some of that activity drew skepticism from regulators. Many start-ups sold their own custom virtual currencies in so-called initial coin offerings, which became a popular way to raise money to fund new software projects. Online advertising was a popular way to market the coins to new customers.
In recent months, American regulators have made it clear that many of the coin offerings were most likely illegal. That has pushed down the prices of most virtual currencies and dampened the market for the ads.
The restrictions on cryptocurrency advertising are similar to limits Google places on other forms of ads, including the promotion of counterfeit items or sexually explicit content.
In an interesting turn of events, Facebook announced that it is removing all cryptocurrency and ICO-related ads from its platform claiming such content is “frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices.” But it turns out the some of these ads continue to slip past the social media titan.
Earlier we stumbled upon the following ad on Facebook, promoting a token sale for a cryptocurrency company called CLN.
It remains unclear why the ad was allowed to appear on Facebook, but it is most likely due to a technical malfunction.
It is worth pointing out that earlier today Facebook took down one of our posts which mentioned that IOTA co-founder Dominik Schiener will be speaking at TNW Conference. So we can at least confirm that the the company has begun enforcing its ban on crypto ads at least partially.
The ad take-down notice came with the following message:
Despite the recent ban on all ads promoting cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings, such promo content continues to pop up on the popular platform – and that is somewhat unsurprising given that the social media giant deals with huge volumes of automated ads.
Indeed, it is hardly surprising that a few of these have slipped through the cracks. Chances are the company will soon begin filtering out such content manually. Alternatively, it could try to improve the accuracy of its ad-detection algorithms.
We reached out to Facebook, who told TNW over email that the ad ban will be fully enforced over the coming few weeks.
“You are seeing this ad because enforcement will begin to ramp across our platforms over the coming weeks,” the spokesperson told TNW. The company also pointed us towards a blog post where they explain the new restrictions on crypto.
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