Twitter joins Google, Facebook in blocking cryptocurrency ads

Twitter joins the bandwagon.

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Twitter has finally confirmed that it will follow Google and Facebook's path to ban cryptocurrencies ads on its website. As a part of its commitment to "ensuring the safety of the Twitter community," Twitter will be adding a new policy prohibiting the ads of initial Bitcoin offerings and token sales, a Twitter representative said, reports Cnet. The ban has started rolling out and will be applicable to all the advertisers within a month.

 
Twitter joins Google, Facebook in blocking cryptocurrency ads

Previously, Facebook also announced that it wouldn't allow ads that promote cryptocurrency on its platform, and search giant Google followed the same approach last week. Reddit has also stopped showing crypto ads since 2016.

 

Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies have long been linked to fraudulent activity and illegal transactions. The reason being, digital coin exchanges are widely unregulated and are hard to reverse, they've become targets for scams and hacks.

Twitter has also taken action against multiple accounts that were indulging in mass retweeting and spamming. In January, there were reports of users paying for fake Twitter followers

What's shocking is that the practice seems to be a rampant among celebrities and even among Twitter executives. The issue was reported by New York Times and the agency has basically identified the group offering such service.

While Social Media companies may be struggling to respond to such issues effectively, New York's Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a probe into digital marketing company called Devumi that is reportedly selling fake followers to Twitter users. Further, "Impersonation and deception are illegal under New York law. We're opening an investigation into Devumi and its apparent sale of bots using stolen identities," Schneiderman expressed his views on Twitter.

New York-based Devumi claims to "accelerate your social growth by helping you "quickly gain followers, viewers, likes and more" on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and other online platforms "with its blend of marketing tactics".

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To understand how Devumi works, the NYT itself set up a new Twitter account and spent $225 on 25,000 followers. "As advertised, the first 10,000 or so looked like real people. They had pictures and full names, hometowns and often authentic-seeming biographies," the report said. "The next 15,000 followers from Devumi were more obviously suspect: no profile pictures, and jumbles of letters, numbers and word fragments instead of names," it added.

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