The once popular social network of 140 characters officially announced that it will begin to ban cryptocurrency advertising starting tomorrow, according to Reuters.
In this way, Twitter would join Facebook and Google in an effort to try to curb advertising related to cryptography.
According to official statements, the ban will cover both Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) and symbolic sales. The policy will be introduced over the next 30 days and will also include the prohibition of exchanges of cryptocurrencies and wallet services, unless they are public companies and listed on the main stock exchanges. However, executives of the social network established that it will limit the advertising of encryption exchanges in Japan to those under the control of the national financial regulator.
Twitter cites security for users as the main motivator behind the ban. The social network was already taking measures to prevent the accounts linked to the item from "relating to others in a deceptive manner," but is facing calls to enact new measures following the bans of Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc (Google).
In a conversation with Reuters, director Zenon Kapron of financial consultancy Kapronasia cited Twitter's risks as another motivator behind the ban:
With the growing number of ICOs reaching the market, it is an impossible task for anyone, much less for platforms such as Twitter or Facebook, to keep ahead of which ICO and cryptocurrencies are genuine and which are fraudulent. Although, certainly, the publicity of ICO must have been an important source of income for Twitter, the repercussions of the fraudulent activities did not justify the risk.
Facebook took the same measure in January this year, while Google announced a ban earlier this month, which would be enacted in June 2018.