Facebook bans all ads for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Facebook said on Tuesday that no "deceptive promotional practices such as cryptocurrency" will be allowed in any ads on its website.

The new Facebook policy released on Tuesday virtually bans all ads that promote cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, across the Facebook community.

"Ads should be safe, and that we build for people first. Misleading or deceptive ads have no place on Facebook," said the world's largest operator of online social and social networking service, which is based in the San Francisco Bay Area of California on the U.S. west coast.

The new practice will prohibit all advertisers, including those who operate legal businesses, from promoting things like bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings or binary options on Facebook.

Facebook regards the above financial products and services as being frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices.

"We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception," Facebook said.

It said the new policy is part of its efforts to "better detect deceptive and misleading advertising practices."

"Enforcement will begin to ramp up across our platforms including Facebook, Audience Network and Instagram," it noted.

Founded on Feb. 4, 2004, Facebook has more than 2 billion monthly active users as of June 2017.