Facebook Relaxes Its Policy on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Ads

Last year in early 2018, due to the wild west crypto craze and several fraudulent schemes popping up in the market, social media giant Facebook announced a complete ban on cryptocurrency and blockchain ads.

One year later, the social media mogul revises its policy relaxing some rules pertaining to blockchain and crypto ads. The updated rules suggest that ads related to blockchain industry news and technology, events, as well as educational material related to cryptocurrencies can be displayed on the Facebook platform without prior approval.

The company made the official announcement of the Facebook Business page on Wednesday, May 8. During the last year ban, Facebook made it mandatory for blockchain promoters to get a necessary approval for advertising on its platform. The latest relaxation to these laws is a welcome move for the overall blockchain and crypto community.

However, Facebook specifies that the new rule relaxation won’t be applicable to ads promoting any particular digital currency. Also, the ads for ICOs are still prohibited on the platform.

Facebook says that some of the existing restrictions are to prevent its users from falling prey to fraudulent schemes and misleading advertisements. For those willing to promote a specific crypto project, or other crypto-related products will have to undergo a rigorous background screening.

This include “...licenses they have obtained, whether they are traded on a public stock exchange (or are a subsidiary of a public company) and other relevant public background on their business.”

Facebook’s new policy revision comes at a time when the crypto trading platform is working on having its own cryptocurrency to the market. Facebook’s native digital token ‘Facebook Coin’ will feature across its entire suite of messaging apps and will be most probably a dollar-pegged digital currency.

Facebook is reportedly in talks with some financial giants like Visa and MasterCard to partner for its stablecoin project dubbed “Libra”. The social media giant is reportedly seeking $1 billion investment for its project.

However, the latest industry report also suggest that Facebook is planning to partner with several e-commerce giants to establish their crypto payment system on their platforms. Hence, it could mean that going ahead, Facebook will allow third-party websites to integrate its crypto payment system which can likely provide a huge liquidity boost to its native digital currency.