Microsoft’s Bing joins Internet giants in banning cryptocurrency ads

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Bing, a Microsoft powered search engine, announced its intention to ban cryptocurrency-related advertisements on its platform by July.

In an announcement on Bing’s website, cryptocurrency adverts and any other related programs will be banned from their platform worldwide. These changes will be implemented on Bing’s financial products and service policy. The change is scheduled to start in June and become fully effective in July.

“To help protect our users from this risk, we have made the decision to disallow advertising for cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency related products, and un-regulated binary options,” according to the search engine.

On its website, Bing said the decision has been made to protect its users from the risks that come with cryptocurrency and unregulated products. Bing believes that the lack of a regulatory framework in cryptocurrency has opened doors to criminals who are taking advantage of unsuspecting users. Many people are falling victims to online schemers with millions in crytpocurrency and fiat being lost every day. Last month, 32,000 people became victims of the Pincoin and iFan ICO fraud that swindled $660 million.

Social platforms provide the best advertisement channels as they serve large crowds of people every day. As such, social platforms have been the go-to method for many scams to introduce their fraudulent ICO projects as well as advertise pre-sales to investors. This is why social platforms and search engines are taking actions to prevent people from losing more money to such schemes.

Bing is the latest platform to join in the fight against cryptocurrency. Banning cryptocurrency adverts started with Facebook in January. Google followed suit and banned crypto and ICO ads on their platform. Two weeks later, Twitter confirmed its also banning cryptocurrency adverts. SnapChat also joined the fight and banned the ads as well.

The opposition on cryptocurrency has prompted industry associations in countries like South Korea, Russia, and China to organize a class-action lawsuit against Google, Twitter, and Facebook in May. Parties to the suit believe the Internet giants have significantly contributed to the drop in market capitalization. Although Bing is not as big as other internet players, this ban will definitely have an effect on platforms promoting their ICOs.