A group of crypto businesses from Russia, South Korea, and China have joined forces with the intention of suing Internet giants Google, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as Russian based Yandex which is believed to be preparing to make a similar move against crypto ads. The group, which is called the Eurasian Association of Blockchain claims that the ban on cryptocurrency advertisements is illegal and will cost their businesses considerable money.
The Twitter Ban
Twitter was the latest company to announce that it would ban crypto ads two days ago, claiming that they were attempting to protect the interests of their users. They said:
“under this new policy, the advertisement of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and token sales will be prohibited globally.”
Google Ban
Google announced a similar ban on 14th March, although this won’t take effect until June. Director of sustainable ads, Scott Spencer, said
“improving the ads experience across the web, whether that’s removing harmful ads or intrusive ads, will continue to be a top priority for us.”
Facebook's Ban
Facebook had already banned crypto ads at the end of January. In a statement, they said that they were banning ads promoting
“financial products and services frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices.” While the ban doesn’t specifically name cryptocurrencies, or ICOs, an official blog post did state that this would include crypto.
It is rumoured that Russian company, Yandex, will also make a similar move, although this news has not yet been officially confirmed.
The Unlikely Heroes
The Eurasian Association of Blockchain is primarily made up of three member companies:
The Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain, or RBIC, was announced in 2017 by Putin’s chief Internet advisor and was designed to integrate blockchain technology into Russian government and commercial structures.
The Korea Venture Business Association formed in 2014 and has the lofty goal of attempting to “revitalize the startup industry.”
The Chinese Association of Cryptocurrency Investors is a group of private cryptocurrency investors, for whom there is very little information available.
Yuri Pripachkin will head the group and, speaking at Blockchain-RF, a crypto event in Russia, he said “we believe that this is the use of the monopoly position of the four companies that entered into a cartel with each other to manipulate the market.”
Although it seems likely that the move may have had a detrimental effect on crypto investments held by the group, it would represent a significant change in the Internet giants’ relationship with one another if they had formed any kind of cartel.
While the bans have negatively impacted prices immediately following the announcements, the impact may have been less than many thought. Most cryptocurrencies and ICOs get the majority of their traffic from sources like coinmarketcap.com rather than from paid advertising, and preventing new investors from getting scammed by unscrupulous token offerings can only serve to strengthen the market in the long run, bringing reliability and greater faith in what remains an emerging market.