Microsoft is banning ads
promoting the sale of cryptocurrency on Bing. The company updated its financial product and services policy despite its openness and willingness to allow people to make purchases in its store using
the currency.
The policy will take effect in June, with a rollout date later in the month or in early July.
The decision comes after Google, Facebook, and Twitter also banned
cryptocurrency ads from appearing on their networks.
“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,” wrote Melissa Alsoszatai-Petheo, advertising policy manager at Microsoft, in a blog post. “Bing Ads will implement this change to
our financial product and services policy globally in
June, with enforcement rolling out in late June to early July. “
Microsoft banned cryptocurrency advertisements because they increase the risk of scams. Bing Ads also disallows
“ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, or other legally questionable business opportunities, particularly if returns on investment rely solely on adding participants to the scheme or the consumer must
pay a subscription fee or buy a specific product to join, and the value proposition of doing so is undefined,” according to a post on the company’s financial products and services policies
page.