Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Will Ban All Cryptocurrency-related Advertising (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the taking-a-stand dept.

Google is cracking down on cryptocurrency-related advertising. From a report: The company is updating its financial services-related ad policies to ban any advertising about cryptocurrency-related content, including initial coin offerings (ICOs), wallets, and trading advice, Google's director of sustainable ads, Scott Spencer, told CNBC. That means that even companies with legitimate cryptocurrency offerings won't be allowed to serve ads through any of Google's ad products, which place advertising on its own sites as well as third-party websites. This update will go into effect in June 2018, according to a company post. "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," Scott said.

1 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. You wanted a black market .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    If the goal was always to have cyrptocurrency be some magical unicorn which is outside of government control, then it was always doomed to become a black market.

    It's an unregulated financial market, rife with fraud, scams, and other crap. The problem is it wants to play on equal footings with real financial markets, where there are a LOT of regulations which say what you can and can't do.

    Personally, I'm tired of hearing about cryptocurrency, it's like the .com era, so much hype and people hoping to get rich, and so little substance.

    Maybe we can all stop hearing about this shit, and you guys can go back to having a black market for imaginary money which is used to buy and sell drugs.

    But let's not pretend cyprocurrencies are a legitimate financial industry, because it isn't.

    Like PayPal isn't a bank and doesn't play by the rules of a bank, this stuff doesn't have any rules, and its proponents seem to think that's a good idea.

    Me, I'll just keep laughing when I hear people have lost their shirts in this. It's like the Dutch and tulips ... this is a self inflicted wound caused by completely irrational and stupid things.