Microsoft follows Twitter, Facebook and Google in banning cryptocurrency advertising

Microsoft has become the latest silicon valley firm to ban cryptocurrency advertising on its search engine Bing.

It follows a number of other silicon valley giants, including Facebook, Twitter and Google also taking the same measures earlier this year.

Read more: Bitcoin is down after Twitter announced a clampdown on crypto advertising

The company’s advertiser policy manager Melissa Alsoszatai-Petheo announced the news in a blog post stating that the move was taken to protect users on the platform.

“We are always evaluating our policies to ensure a safe and engaging experience for our Bing users and the digital advertising ecosystem,” she wrote.

“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 behaviours, 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 un-regulated binary options.”

She added that Bing Ads will implement the change to its financial product and services policy globally in June, as enforcement will take effect in late June to early July.