Following Facebook’s announcement last week that it was banning all advertising for binary options, cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings, a Canadian regulator has called on Google to do the same.
Jason Roy, a senior investigator at the Manitoba Securities Commission and chairman of Canada’s Binary Options Task Force, told The Times of Israel that “we’re very pleased with Facebook’s decision. My hope is that Google will enact a similar policy, where they specifically name products like binary options, ICOs and cryptocurrencies.”
On January 30, Facebook announced it was banning all advertising for binary options, cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings, following many months of pressure from the FBI and Canadian securities regulators who have been investigating online investment fraud.
Binary options is a recently outlawed Israel-based fraud that was estimated to bring in $5-$10 billion a year at its peak.
“We’ve created a new policy that prohibits ads that promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency,” Facebook product management director Rob Leathern wrote in a January 30 blog post announcing the advertising ban.
But Google, which according to industry insiders generates much of the paid traffic for fraudulent binary options, cryptocurrency and ICO companies, has yet to ban the ads.
Asked by The Times of Israel whether it was going to enact a similar ban, Google spokeswoman Roni Levin replied by email that “we already ban and enforce against misleading ads and misrepresentation (across all categories). Here are the policies — Misrepresentation and Misleading Ads.”
Read the original story over at The Times of Israel.
This story was summarized by Canadian Fraud News Inc.
