Facebook Bans Crypto-related Ads - What Does This Mean?
The world's biggest social network, Facebook, announced yesterday that it will no longer allow for the advertisement of "financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency".
According to Rob Leathern, Product Management Director at Facebook, the goal of this policy is to prevent scammers from advertising shady ICOs and fishy Forex platforms to Facebook users. However, this might mean Steemit and other Steem-based platforms may have some serious problems turning to Facebook for user recruitment.
As the current social media manager for @utopian-io , this worries me somewhat. As a tech journalist - it fascinates me.
(Image Source: bonafide.news)
The REAL Reason Facebook is Banning Crypto Ads?
We can't know, but we can guess.
The Big Blue likes to show good intentions, but the true agenda of Mark Zuckerberg and his board of directors is usually what hides behind such bold moves. I've already seen some Steemians screaming it's because Facebook is scared of Steemit. With all due respect to Steemit, Facebook is hardly threatened by a platform with a crappy UX and no marketing department or business plan. No offense, Steemit INC.
Facebook thrives on ads, especially in competitive arenas where CPCs can reach sky-high sums. The cryptocurrency and ICO explosion in the past year created quite a bit competition in this field. In addition, no regulator came knocking on Facebook's door, asking to moderate ads for financial products or services.
Why is it that a bank can advertise on Facebook, but a cryptocurrency exchange cannot? And why is Facebook handing Google (and other competitors) such a huge market?
Is a Facebook Coin Coming?
Very possibly so.
With Telegram announcing its plan to launch an ICO, attracting some major VC investors, and Mark Zuckerberg openly writing in his New Year's resolution that he's interested in the potentials cryptocurrencies and decentralization, it's not unlikely that we'll see a Facebook cryptocurrency emerge sooner rather than later. Perhaps even as early as 2018. But there's no way for us to know, even after reading the Zuck's new year resolution regarding the subjects of decentralization and cryptocurrencies.
"With the rise of a small number of big tech companies — and governments using technology to watch their citizens — many people now believe technology only centralizes power rather than decentralizes it. There are important counter-trends to this --like encryption and cryptocurrency -- that take power from centralized systems and put it back into people's hands. But they come with the risk of being harder to control. I'm interested to go deeper and study the positive and negative aspects of these technologies, and how best to use them in our services. This will be a serious year of self-improvement and I'm looking forward to learning from working to fix our issues together." - Mark Zuckerberg
(Image Source: CryptoTime.News)
So Why Ban It?
At this point you might be asking: "If Facebook is going to launch a cryptocurrency, why ban advertising related services now? Pure spite?"
Perhaps it's pure corporate evil, messing with the competition long before launching a product. Personally, I believe that it might be something else - an attempt to clear the playing field of scammers (and potential scammers) in order to increase the level of confidence and security users have in cryptocurrencies for when the Facebook coin hits the exchanges with the full power of the Big Blue whale behind it. The last thing Facebook would want is to address a user base burned by the ICO craze with their own currency.
But What About Steemit?
It's yet unclear how this will affect Steemit ads on Facebook. I don't currently have a campaign set up, but I have half a mind to run a short local campaign for Utopian just to see what happens. If we can no longer advertise Steemit on Facebook, we'll simply advertise elsewhere. Twitter, reddit, tumblr and Google are still our friends if Facebook doesn't want our money anymore.
My "fear" is that Facebook's decision to distance itself from cryptocurrency-related businesses and websites might cause it to go beyond banning the ads. Steemit website links on the platform already get embarrassingly low exposure on profiles and pages (like YouTube links), but what happens if Facebook bans Steemit, busy.org, dlink, dtube and utopian-io links altogether?
It would be easy for the company to claim the websites promote scammy content because a lot of the posts are about cryptocurrencies and trading, and ban it in their systems. I've seen it happen and turn into a lengthy and exhausting lawsuit (maybe @jonklinger can tell you about). But will they?
The Duality of Zuck
To me, from a tech journalist's perspective, Mark Zuckerberg's duality toward cryptocurrencies and decentralization is interesting. Because it is the centralization of power in the social media and online advertising market that gives The Zuck the ability to censor cryptocurrency related ads with the click of a button. Not only that, but the fact that Zuck's post revealed his interest in both less than a MONTH before dropping the bomb on all crypto-related business advertising on his platform? Just goes to show how little connection there is between what Facebook says and what Facebook does.
Do you think we'll see a Facebook Cryptocurrency in 2018? Will Facebook ban links to Steem frontends? And what about other social networks (and Google)? Will they follow suit?
Share your thoughts and conspiracies in the comments!
It means that Facebook will lose Billions in Ad dollars. Goodbye Facebook.
if we should take a look at some point their intentions are good, i have been deceived many times with fake ico campaigns and ads, but take a look at the brighter side, then what face book did is awful, i think they shut it down as they saw lots of users are now becoming more crypto enthusiasts and really don't have much time with facebook no more like they'd use to, take for example me, ever since i found steemit, i rarely chat or spent time there no more,
i was running an ads for a steem related site when i got that message from them, you just don't know how devastated i was,
you can't ban something that has its good side more than its bad side, if then God should have banned this world.
Well, shit. There's proof steem is blocked for advertising on Facebook.
I wonder how many people would even buy a coin, that can become worthless at any moment (it's value would exist solely because of integration with FB).
Basically it always seems that Zuck is trying to add a few more billions to the assets in his control, and a VERY centralized "crypto" currency would be a great way to do that.
All he has to do in order to get the currency into circulation is first give advertisers a discount when paying with said coin, then integrate ecommerce for pages and "buy now" buttons that are connected to a user's wallet. In said wallet, the user can store Facebook Coins AND tethered fiat, then use them to pay for products and services (like an ad-free account on Facebook). This virtual wallet can then be easily integrated into Facebook apps and games, and basically the whole Facebook ecosystem. Zuck already owns the planet. Now he's just showing off.
We're doomed :'(
Your optimism inspires me. <3
Steem needs to get to 100B marketcap, then we'll probably be Zuckerberg resistant
Yeah, he can buy us out long before that.
Hopefully he'll stay a long time in part 1 of the Gandhi Revolution Process- Ignoring Us
Big mouth always eats up the small mouths...where is social media good thoughts? Mr. FB owner?
As you can see, that could've easily been said about Steem for the past 2 years before platforms like DTube, DLive, Busy and Utopian developed. Not to mention that if steemit died the coin would drop it's price like crazy, possibly below 1 USD. You're delusional if you don't see the similarities of a potential Facebook Coin and Steem.
My take is that Facebook is banning crypto ads because it has taken so much heat over the past 12-18 months over "fake news" and "Russian bots" and all that stuff. The people at Facebook have literally been called to Washington in order to testify in front of Congress. (sort of like being called to the principal's office in high school) In the U.S., people are saying that Facebook is bad for democracy. With that kind of heat, I'm sure that Facebook's legal department is looking to minimize any future scandals or points of conflict with regulators and watchdogs. They certainly don't want to be blamed for a "market crash" or millions of people losing money if their cryptocurrency holdings take a dive in value.
So, while I certainly see your point about Facebook trying to co-opt rivals, I still think that Facebook is still too early in the process of crypto and blockchain to ban advertising for that reason. And I'm not sure if Steemit is even on Zuck's radar right now. I think he's thinking mostly in terms of "social commerce" and how to get people buying and selling things via Facebook and Facebook Messenger.
However, when the lightbulb does go on in Facebook HQ, i have no doubt that Zuck will act to co-opt Steemit (or any other perceived rivals) as quickly as he moved to co-opt Instagram, Snapchat and Whatsapp.
I have heard rumours on various sites of Facebook considering a Crypto Currency and they have always hated any competition so this would not surprise me as a move by them to try and keep facebook user sin the dark about crypto currencies till they can rroll out there own and try to fool users into thinking they are being innovative rather than the truth that they now realize they missed the ship on this one
tip!
I think Google is in the same boat. They're waiting for the water to be calmer and with a lot less sharks before they sail into the oceans on cryptocurrencies.
Yes I think your right
There getting prepared in the background ready to leap in when the time is right
Hi @techslut, I left this comment on a similar post by @uewlang, hope it helps show my opinion!
Thanks for sharing this @uwelang. Personally, I think that Facebook actually did this to benefit their users. I was at a conference the other day, and was told that there are on average 5 new ICOs every single day.
Many of the ones that I have seen advertised on Facebook would be considered spammy, and a small portion that I have seen have been blatant scams.
I read the guidelines, and facebook is banning advertising with a call to action that directly promotes investing to users - something that I am not entirely against.
Now, I know that this could have a terrible effect on the promotion of STEEM as a currency, but we can still advertise Steemit as a platform, if we are smart about our advertising it will not affect us. I work full time in ICO Consulting, onine course creations and now blogging, so I would be more than happy to help create advertising campaigns for Steemit that are compliant with these new rules, but also help get new users in to the platform. If you or anyone else is interested in doing a Steemit fundraiser for advertising campaign funds, let me know and we can get something together to further promote Steemit.
I am currently working on a blog series with a focus on new users to the platform - showing them how I made around $1,000 worth of Steem in 3 days with no initial investment. The aim of the series is to turn new users in to long term daily active users by providing them with the skills they neeed - i think it is important and I feel that there should be a page that focuses solely on brand new Steemians, showing them the ropes through online courses, and curating content to give them the boost that they need. Again, I would be happy to do this, so I am currently trying to get SP delegated to myself so that my vote is worth something to new users. This way, even if we can't advertise on platforms like Facebook, we will spread the word by word of mouth of new users - not the most effective strategy, but it would get in a lot of active users in my opinion.
Thanks again for the post, let me know if you would be interested in any of this work! I have a graphic designer on board already, so we have a good skill set to start with. Would reall appreciate your support on my latest series for beginners!
I think @jerrybanfield runs advertising campaigns for steemit on Facebook, and I plan to run some for Utopian soon. We shall try and see.
Interesting! Well if promoting Steemit does become difficult on Facebook, I am happy to help. I am trying to transition to wroking full time on growing the Steemit community, so I am happy to help in any way that I can.
I am currently on the other side of that transition, looking to organize local meetups to familiarize open source developers in Israel with utopian, among others. I've written about steemit in the local press (my last fiat job) and I hope to get it even more exposure. I also speak personally with potential whalish investor types as I want to grow the Israeli community.
That's great to hear, glad that you are doing that! I'm currently working in ICO consulting, and online course creation. I'm looking to add Steemit as my third full time role. I would really appreciate your support on my latest series! I gave you a follow and will keep up to date with your content!
Back atcha. Look me up on the discords, I'll be happy to chat.
Will do!
it won't work, i have tried that.
Right!
Steemit is a platform, Steem the underlying currency / blockchain.
So Steemit is no Crypyo coin and should not be banned.
Be carefull though to attract people with the idea of quickly becoming rich: good content or ideas seldom come from greed...
Facebook is a dinosaur in the web technology world. It has added features over the years but has not fundamentally changed anything in the way it works. This is mostly because it's nearly impossible to do so without alienating or splitting your user base.
Facebook (the website)'s days are numbered. How soon will it die I can't tell, but I'd give it 2-4 years. The only reason facebook still exists is because it's nearly impossible to move your grandma to a new platform. But that's also it's Achilles's heel. Facebook doesn't want to lose your grandma, but more importantly than that, if facebook makes a fundamental change, and sacrifices your grandma, there will no longer be anything keeping you on the platform. People will move to a platform that pays them to interact.
Wait, but what if facebook pays you to interact? It doesn't matter, if facebook makes a system that pays you to interact it will lose grandma, and when it loses grandma, you'll be free to pick the best platform for your paid social interaction, and I promise you, that's not going to be facebook. Why? Because facebook doesn't have their userbase locked in an ecosystem like apple, or to a lesser extent, google does. They want to, oh they really really want to, but I reckon they're too late.
I agree that just like there are people pumping kodak and long island blocktea, there are people who hear anything about crypto or blockchain, and it's immediately "bitcoin is a bubble" and shut down. When Facebook was exclusive to people with college emails, facebook may have had a perfect demographic of people to pitch to, but now they are attempting to catch everyone and the narrative about crypto in the mainstream won't allow for a smooth transition.
Reading the title made me immediately think the same thing. Steemit can be adopted by an interested user, instead of one that is reluctant and doesn't want to help support the community to increase its value. Valuable creators from these platforms continue to vote with their feet by joining and urge their followers to research or educate them directly to continue to blockchain onboarding.
100% agree! Great observation!
Facebook's strength is in numbers!
Facebook is obviously making a crypto, and it will be one of the biggest ever..
Yeah that's what i think as well that he is clearing out all the shitcoins and ICO ads in order to distance itself from being associated and so that when they release their own own the market is ripe and will swallow it whole.
We have been using Facebook messenger as a primary means of communication and dropping links because unfortunately being in a Third World country we are not as financially free and so anything free like Facebook free data from our Telecoms is a primary way to communicate. We have established our own Discord server for @steemitfamilyph but most people are still in Facebook.
The links are often blocked now and I hardly think that Steemit will be a Facebook killer now because we don't have a lot of marketing done. Who knows in a couple of years especially if Facebook sleeps on its ass and don't innovate.
I manage the Israeli community in a Facebook group. We have a Discord, but a lot more people are comfortable with Facebook. So yeah.
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