Microsoft search engine Bing has joined such social media moguls as Facebook, Google and Twitter in prohibiting cryptocurrency advertising, under the pretence of user protection. According to the official announcement, the main issue for Bing in the case of virtual currencies is the lack of regulation, which allegedly puts the users at risk.

The official blog post claims that “Because cryptocurrency and related products are not regulated, we have found them to present a possible elevated risk to our users with the potential for bad actors to participate in predatory behaviors, or otherwise scam consumers. To help protect our users from this risk, we have made the decision to disallow advertising for cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency related products, and unregulated binary options.“

The new policy will go live in June and should be implemented globally by early July. Facebook was the first major social media player to announce a ban on digital currency and ICO advertisements, doing so in January this year. Soon after, Google announced a similar ban and Twitter was quick to follow its counterparts as well. Also, platforms such as MailChimp and Snapchat have also joined the crypto blockade.

However, crypto enthusiasts have responded by announcing their plans for counterattack in March as virtual currency associations from Russia, Korea and China will be taking the social media giants to court. They claimed there was a cartel collusion between the social media companies manipulate the virtual currency market and artificially reduce the prices.

Curiously, despite such moves that are clearly targeted against cryptocurrencies both Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey seem to be crypto aficionados, based on their recent statements. Mr. Dorsey has recently predicted that virtual currencies will ultimately replace all other currencies, giving the fiat currencies 10 more years of existence.

Meanwhile, Mr. Zuckerberg claimed that one of his top priorities for 2018 is to study cryptocurrencies. Additionally, Facebook has been contemplating the launch of its own cryptocurrency while also creating a new blockchain team where some of its top executives will be relocating, leaving leading roles in other divisions of the company.

In all of the cases of crypto advertising boycott, the reason behind the bans is user protection, as the absence of clear institutional regulation puts them in danger. However, once the stricter rules are introduced, it seems likely that the bans could be overturned, which would help the crypto market grow and flourish.

Bing’s decision might have contributed to the overall slump of crypto markets as almost all digital currencies have plunged, following the announcement. Bitcoin has dropped to an early low of $8103, although rebounded afterwards and is trading at $8408 at press time.

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