TikTok Bans Cryptocurrency-Related Ads

Crypto influencers will no longer be allowed to promote crypto projects on TikTok after the popular social network released new guidelines on Friday.

TikTok Bans Crypto Ads

Updating its Brand Content Policy, TikTok noted that all the following forms of financial services and products are now banned from the social media platform: cryptocurrencies, trading platforms, pyramid schemes, “get rich quick” schemes, credit cards, loans, and some others.

According to recent reports, most of the victims of these high-risk investments and get-rich quick schemes being promoted on TikTok are young people and the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently voiced concern over the worrying trend.

Curbing Financial Scams

TikTok claims the move is to end the increasing rate of crypto-related and other investment scams and schemes promoted on the social network. However, the outright ban will also affect legitimate financial-related firms that use the platform to promote their products.

The social media app became a preferred platform for promoting meme-inspired cryptocurrencies after the Dogecoin hype in 2020.

As reported at the time, DOGE surged by over 100% within a few days after it was promoted on TikTok by an influencer who urged his followers to buy the coin “because it was worthless.”

Following the impressive feat, other Dogecoin copycats started paying TikTok influencers to promote their projects, hoping to get a similar hype effect recorded by DOGE.

Not The First Social Network

Meanwhile, TikTok is not the first social media platform to ban crypto ads. In 2018, Facebook banned all adverts promoting cryptocurrency services and products during the ICO craze. Although the social media giant later reversed the ban on some of the crypto ads that same year, it was seen censoring bitcoin-related content again in 2020.

Google also placed a ban on crypto adverts in 2018, but started allowing crypto wallets and exchanges to run advertisements on its platform last month.

However, crypto-related and financial firms are expected to meet some requirements like registering with the FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) and complying with other Google Ads policies before they can promote their products on the world-biggest search engine.