Facebook Bans Crypto-related Ads - What Does This Mean?

techslut (70) in facebook • 7 years ago

The world's biggest social network, Facebook, announced yesterday that it will no longer allow for the advertisement of "financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency".

According to Rob Leathern, Product Management Director at Facebook, the goal of this policy is to prevent scammers from advertising shady ICOs and fishy Forex platforms to Facebook users. However, this might mean Steemit and other Steem-based platforms may have some serious problems turning to Facebook for user recruitment.

As the current social media manager for @utopian-io , this worries me somewhat. As a tech journalist - it fascinates me.

(Image Source: bonafide.news)

The REAL Reason Facebook is Banning Crypto Ads?

We can't know, but we can guess.

The Big Blue likes to show good intentions, but the true agenda of Mark Zuckerberg and his board of directors is usually what hides behind such bold moves. I've already seen some Steemians screaming it's because Facebook is scared of Steemit. With all due respect to Steemit, Facebook is hardly threatened by a platform with a crappy UX and no marketing department or business plan. No offense, Steemit INC.

Facebook thrives on ads, especially in competitive arenas where CPCs can reach sky-high sums. The cryptocurrency and ICO explosion in the past year created quite a bit competition in this field. In addition, no regulator came knocking on Facebook's door, asking to moderate ads for financial products or services.

Why is it that a bank can advertise on Facebook, but a cryptocurrency exchange cannot? And why is Facebook handing Google (and other competitors) such a huge market?

Is a Facebook Coin Coming?

Very possibly so.

With Telegram announcing its plan to launch an ICO, attracting some major VC investors, and Mark Zuckerberg openly writing in his New Year's resolution that he's interested in the potentials cryptocurrencies and decentralization, it's not unlikely that we'll see a Facebook cryptocurrency emerge sooner rather than later. Perhaps even as early as 2018. But there's no way for us to know, even after reading the Zuck's new year resolution regarding the subjects of decentralization and cryptocurrencies.

"With the rise of a small number of big tech companies — and governments using technology to watch their citizens — many people now believe technology only centralizes power rather than decentralizes it. There are important counter-trends to this --like encryption and cryptocurrency -- that take power from centralized systems and put it back into people's hands. But they come with the risk of being harder to control. I'm interested to go deeper and study the positive and negative aspects of these technologies, and how best to use them in our services. This will be a serious year of self-improvement and I'm looking forward to learning from working to fix our issues together." - Mark Zuckerberg

(Image Source: CryptoTime.News)

So Why Ban It?

At this point you might be asking: "If Facebook is going to launch a cryptocurrency, why ban advertising related services now? Pure spite?"

Perhaps it's pure corporate evil, messing with the competition long before launching a product. Personally, I believe that it might be something else - an attempt to clear the playing field of scammers (and potential scammers) in order to increase the level of confidence and security users have in cryptocurrencies for when the Facebook coin hits the exchanges with the full power of the Big Blue whale behind it. The last thing Facebook would want is to address a user base burned by the ICO craze with their own currency.

But What About Steemit?

It's yet unclear how this will affect Steemit ads on Facebook. I don't currently have a campaign set up, but I have half a mind to run a short local campaign for Utopian just to see what happens. If we can no longer advertise Steemit on Facebook, we'll simply advertise elsewhere. Twitter, reddit, tumblr and Google are still our friends if Facebook doesn't want our money anymore.

My "fear" is that Facebook's decision to distance itself from cryptocurrency-related businesses and websites might cause it to go beyond banning the ads. Steemit website links on the platform already get embarrassingly low exposure on profiles and pages (like YouTube links), but what happens if Facebook bans Steemit, busy.org, dlink, dtube and utopian-io links altogether?

It would be easy for the company to claim the websites promote scammy content because a lot of the posts are about cryptocurrencies and trading, and ban it in their systems. I've seen it happen and turn into a lengthy and exhausting lawsuit (maybe @jonklinger can tell you about). But will they?

The Duality of Zuck

To me, from a tech journalist's perspective, Mark Zuckerberg's duality toward cryptocurrencies and decentralization is interesting. Because it is the centralization of power in the social media and online advertising market that gives The Zuck the ability to censor cryptocurrency related ads with the click of a button. Not only that, but the fact that Zuck's post revealed his interest in both less than a MONTH before dropping the bomb on all crypto-related business advertising on his platform? Just goes to show how little connection there is between what Facebook says and what Facebook does.

Do you think we'll see a Facebook Cryptocurrency in 2018? Will Facebook ban links to Steem frontends? And what about other social networks (and Google)? Will they follow suit?

Share your thoughts and conspiracies in the comments!

Like what you've read? Check out some of my previous posts!

facebook cryptocurrency steemit tech advertising

7 years ago by techslut (70)

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imacryptorick (61) · 7 years ago

I wonder how many people would even buy a coin, that can become worthless at any moment (it's value would exist solely because of integration with FB).
Basically it always seems that Zuck is trying to add a few more billions to the assets in his control, and a VERY centralized "crypto" currency would be a great way to do that.

$0.39

5 votes

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techslut (70) · 7 years ago

All he has to do in order to get the currency into circulation is first give advertisers a discount when paying with said coin, then integrate ecommerce for pages and "buy now" buttons that are connected to a user's wallet. In said wallet, the user can store Facebook Coins AND tethered fiat, then use them to pay for products and services (like an ad-free account on Facebook). This virtual wallet can then be easily integrated into Facebook apps and games, and basically the whole Facebook ecosystem. Zuck already owns the planet. Now he's just showing off.

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1 vote

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lukebrn (58) · 7 years ago

Hi @techslut, I left this comment on a similar post by @uewlang, hope it helps show my opinion!

Thanks for sharing this @uwelang. Personally, I think that Facebook actually did this to benefit their users. I was at a conference the other day, and was told that there are on average 5 new ICOs every single day.
Many of the ones that I have seen advertised on Facebook would be considered spammy, and a small portion that I have seen have been blatant scams.
I read the guidelines, and facebook is banning advertising with a call to action that directly promotes investing to users - something that I am not entirely against.
Now, I know that this could have a terrible effect on the promotion of STEEM as a currency, but we can still advertise Steemit as a platform, if we are smart about our advertising it will not affect us. I work full time in ICO Consulting, onine course creations and now blogging, so I would be more than happy to help create advertising campaigns for Steemit that are compliant with these new rules, but also help get new users in to the platform. If you or anyone else is interested in doing a Steemit fundraiser for advertising campaign funds, let me know and we can get something together to further promote Steemit.
I am currently working on a blog series with a focus on new users to the platform - showing them how I made around $1,000 worth of Steem in 3 days with no initial investment. The aim of the series is to turn new users in to long term daily active users by providing them with the skills they neeed - i think it is important and I feel that there should be a page that focuses solely on brand new Steemians, showing them the ropes through online courses, and curating content to give them the boost that they need. Again, I would be happy to do this, so I am currently trying to get SP delegated to myself so that my vote is worth something to new users. This way, even if we can't advertise on platforms like Facebook, we will spread the word by word of mouth of new users - not the most effective strategy, but it would get in a lot of active users in my opinion.
Thanks again for the post, let me know if you would be interested in any of this work! I have a graphic designer on board already, so we have a good skill set to start with. Would reall appreciate your support on my latest series for beginners!

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2 votes

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techslut (70) · 7 years ago

I think @jerrybanfield runs advertising campaigns for steemit on Facebook, and I plan to run some for Utopian soon. We shall try and see.

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lukebrn (58) · 7 years ago

Interesting! Well if promoting Steemit does become difficult on Facebook, I am happy to help. I am trying to transition to wroking full time on growing the Steemit community, so I am happy to help in any way that I can.

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poet (55) · 7 years ago

Facebook is a dinosaur in the web technology world. It has added features over the years but has not fundamentally changed anything in the way it works. This is mostly because it's nearly impossible to do so without alienating or splitting your user base.

Facebook (the website)'s days are numbered. How soon will it die I can't tell, but I'd give it 2-4 years. The only reason facebook still exists is because it's nearly impossible to move your grandma to a new platform. But that's also it's Achilles's heel. Facebook doesn't want to lose your grandma, but more importantly than that, if facebook makes a fundamental change, and sacrifices your grandma, there will no longer be anything keeping you on the platform. People will move to a platform that pays them to interact.

Wait, but what if facebook pays you to interact? It doesn't matter, if facebook makes a system that pays you to interact it will lose grandma, and when it loses grandma, you'll be free to pick the best platform for your paid social interaction, and I promise you, that's not going to be facebook. Why? Because facebook doesn't have their userbase locked in an ecosystem like apple, or to a lesser extent, google does. They want to, oh they really really want to, but I reckon they're too late.

$0.28

5 votes

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hrissm (58) · 7 years ago (edited)

First of all great read, informative and interesting stuff. I wouldn't come across this without Steemit! So thank you @techslut !

Now for some of my two-sense.... or is it cents? Cheers!

"With the rise of a small number of big tech companies — and governments using technology to watch their citizens — many people now believe technology only centralizes power rather than decentralizes it. There are important counter-trends to this --like encryption and cryptocurrency -- that take power from centralized systems and put it back into people's hands. But they come with the risk of being harder to control. I'm interested to go deeper and study the positive and negative aspects of these technologies, and how best to use them in our services. This will be a serious year of self-improvement and I'm looking forward to learning from working to fix our issues together." - Mark Zuckerberg

To me, from a tech journalist's perspective, Mark Zuckerberg's duality toward cryptocurrencies and decentralization is interesting. Because it is the centralization of power in the social media and online advertising market that gives The Zuck the ability to censor cryptocurrency related ads with the click of a button. Not only that, but the fact that Zuck's post revealed his interest in both less than a MONTH before dropping the bomb on all crypto-related business advertising on his platform? Just goes to show how little connection there is between what Facebook says and what Facebook does.

After reading both Zuckerberg's quote on top and yours following. It seems that maybe his further review and "study of the positive and negative aspects" of crypto has led FB to determine it's in their best initial interest to ban "all crypto-related business advertising on his platform," as you mention above.

As several replies above mention, I'd agree that initially it's probably better to distance themselves from cryptos due to there being so many out there and their credibility being questionable.

I also questioned why FB hasn't made a coin yet and/or whether they themselves were developing one. Without much thought, it would seem that it is a no-brainer for them. If not in the hopes of monetary gain -as they at the current moment are not lacking in that department- but for them to be ahead of the curve when blockchain becomes something more mainstream. Which it is almost inevitably is going to become, in my humble and still learning opinon.

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2 votes

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telaviv (25) · 7 years ago

Very interesting post and you made a lot of good points. However, I feel that the main explanation is very simple: Facebook does not want to be accused of being complicit in ICO/crypto scams that would inevitably be advertised on their platform.

The last thing Facebook wants is a repeat of the last crisis, which has seen media and politicians criticizing Facebook for letting Russian entities pay to bombard Facebook with ads and fake stories during the US elections. That was a huge issue that won't be soon forgotten, and I see them trying to avoid a similar situation here.

Facebook seems to have learned its lesson, and realizes that the short-term profit from allowing ICOs to advertise on their platform will only hurt their goals and reputation in the long-run. (Would you want a scam operation advertising on your site -- worse yet, to your loyal readers?)

I don't mean to blindly defend Facebook, but I think Zuck is trying to do the right thing for both society and his shareholders.

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1 vote

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moon32walker (71) · 7 years ago

I really don't care anymore what Facebook does. Steem/it is the future.

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1 vote

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gogoli (38) · 7 years ago

It is true that fb is the biggest social media, but I think it is not relevant in crypto world. In my opinion the biggest advertising on crypto is done on bitcointalk, reddit, twitter, and why not steemit. At least who is really interested on crypto world and who want a technical opinion for cryptos must look at the above mentioned platforms. For me on fb are advertising mostly spam ICO-s that try to collect funds from peoples without any knowledge about cryptos and on that point of view the bann is not affecting the real crypto.

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1 vote