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April 9, 2018
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As anyone in the cryptocurrency community will be painfully aware of, a string of Internet giants have banned (or proposed to ban) cryptocurrency advertisements on their platforms.
Some of the most prominent of these companies include the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, MailChimp, and Reddit.
Facebook already put the ban on ICO adverts into effect at the end of January this year, and Twitter’s ban was just announced at the end of last month.
Although Google confirmed their ban in March as well, the ban will not come into effect until June later this year.
Finally, “Яндекс”, the biggest search engine in Russia, has now also announced that it impose a similar ban on ICOs.
Russia, in particular, stands to lose quite a lot on this kind of ban, as their contribution to the global ICO market is as much as 10%.
Why ban cryptocurrency advertisements?
The rationale behind this ban is that too many ICOs are scams, and the users of the online social media platforms must be protected.
This has caused some of the investors to worry that the value of their cryptocurrencies will plummet – and indeed some have.
Others have started suspecting that the timing of all the Internet giants deciding on a ban within a relatively short timeframe is due to collusion between them.
However, still other investors are optimistic about the situation. They say that the advertisement ban on social media will help weeding out the criminal elements of the cryptocurrency market.
And there are quite a few criminal elements: money laundering, trading of illegal substances, and scam artists peddling fraudulent ICOs.
Cryptocurrency associations strike back
Regardless of where one stands on the advertisement ban, there are now several organisations that have decided to file lawsuits against the major Internet companies in retaliation.
The organizations are based in a wide range of countries, including Russia, China, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Switzerland and Armenia, and have recently formed Eurasian Blockchain Association (EBA).
The organizations themselves include the Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain, a Chinese association of crypto investors called LCBT, and the Korea Venture Business Associations, the Kazakhstan Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Association, the Swiss fintech company InnMind, and the Armenian Blockchain Association.
Pending lawsuit against Google, Facebook, and Twitter
The news about this joint lawsuit is hot off the press, and the world only found out about this move a little over a week ago.
The group of organizations is moving swiftly, however. With funding collected and stored in Estonia, the lawsuit is already set to be filed in New York next month.
Where the lawsuit will apply to is yet to be confirmed, as some states have more lax laws when it concerns cryptocurrencies.
What do you think of the proposed ban on cryptocurrency advertisements? Will the companies change their mind as the criminal elements slowly but surely disappear?
Leave your comments in the section below!
