Facebook bans all ads promoting cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and ICOs

Social network looks to crack down on deceptive marketing activity

Facebook has banned all adverts promoting cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and initial coin offerings (ICO), in order to crack down on deceptive marketing activity around the promotion of financial products and services.

Adverts that say "Use your retirement funds to buy Bitcoin" and "Click here to learn more about our no-risk cryptocurrency that enables instant payments to anyone in the world" will be stripped from the social network.

"We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception. That said, there are many companies who are advertising binary options, ICOs and cryptocurrencies that are not currently operating in good faith," Rob Leathern, Facebook's product management director said.

"This policy is intentionally broad while we work to better detect deceptive and misleading advertising practices, and enforcement will begin to ramp up across our platforms including Facebook, Audience Network and Instagram. We will revisit this policy and how we enforce it as our signals improve."

This move will see even legitimate companies offering above board cryptocurrency services losing out, particularly as Facebook in encouraging people to report any such adverts that its security process misses.

The world of cryptocurrencies is currently exploding in popularity and interest, with the likes of Bitcoin and Ripple surging in price.

However, there are also plenty of ICOs, whereby people are encouraged to buy new cryptocurrencies before they launch in order to capitalise upon and future growth, that lack any regulatory safeguards.

Often ICO investments raise a whole load of cash for the creators or investment service provider only for then to disappear leaving investors with nothing but regret.

By stripping adverts for cryptocurrency investment, Facebook should at least safeguard its platform from being seen as a place for rogue cryptocurrency companies to go fishing for victims with money to burn.