This year in March, it was revealed that Google was going to ban advertisements for cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in an attempt to “tackle emerging threats”. The ban was enforced in June to crackdown on unregulated financial products.
Google’s advertising ban had followed the one by Facebook in January, after the cryptocurrency space became notorious for its scams. “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”, Google’s director of sustainable ads, Scott Spencer had said.
However, the move was looked at as “unfair” and “unethical” by several cryptocurrency enthusiasts, as it was going to hurt legitimate businesses. Crypto advocates felt that Google was overstepping its role as a perceived gatekeeper to information.
Google relaxing its strict rules on cryptocurrency-related advertising
After about 4 months of Google’s ban, the company has finally announced that it going to reverse part of its sweeping ban on cryptocurrency-related advertising and allow regulated crypto exchanges to buy ads in the United States and Japan. This new policy will be implemented in October.
“The Google Ads policy on Financial products and services will be updated in October 2018 to allow regulated cryptocurrency exchanges to advertise in the United States and Japan”, Google stated in its updated advertisement policy.
Thus, regulated cryptocurrency exchanges will now be allowed to show advertisements on Google. Advertisers from all over the world can advertise on Google, however, they can only run their ads in the US and Japan. Also, interested parties will be required to get certified for serving ads in each country individually. Facebook, which had also banned cryptocurrency advertising in January, relaxed the ban in June this year.
The news is a big win for the emerging cryptocurrency market, which will once again be able to leverage Google’s massive user base to reach out to their target audiences. The requisite of a certification to serve ads might also filter the kind of parties who advertise on Google, thus keeping scamsters in check.