ICO NEWS: TWITTER BANS ICO ADS

The ban includes all ads related to cryptocurrency exchanges and wallet services, with a notable exception afforded to publicly listed companies listed on certain major stock markets, Reuters reports.

The ban won't apply to cryptocurrency exchanges registered and licensed to operate by the Financial Services Agency (FSA), the United States' financial regulator.

"We are committed to ensuring the safety of the community"

A spokesperson for Twitter told CNBC: "We are committed to ensuring the safety of the Twitter community. As such, we have added a new policy for Twitter Ads relating to cryptocurrency. Under this new policy, the advertisement of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and token sales will be prohibited globally."

Sky News was the first news outlet to report the ban one week ago. Initial reports suggested the ban would be introduced at some point over the next two weeks. This was after Twitter said publicly that it was aiming to prevent crypto-related accounts from 'engaging with others in a deceptive manner'.

Vitalik "Not giving away Ether" Buterin

Crypto-related scams orchestrated via Twitter have been on the rise for some time. Many scammer create fraudulent accounts of popular crypto personalities and offer free crypto giveaways in exchange for a small amount of Ether or BTC.

This happened so much that Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, opted to change his Twitter name to Vitalik "Not giving away Ether" Buterin.

Facebook, Google and Twitter

Twitter’s new policy is more or less in line with that of Google and Facebook, who, as mentioned, both recently announced their own limits on crypto-related advertising.

Facebook added advertising related to ‘binary options, initial coin offerings, or cryptocurrency’ under its ‘prohibited financial products and services’ policy earlier this year.

Google, the world’s biggest ad provider, announced its own ban on crypto advertising which will come into effect in June.