The Chinese short-form video-sharing app TikTok has recently updated its advertising policies, banning certain types of promotions. The now-verboten themes encompass plenty of financial services and products, including loans, day-trading and forex trading platforms, and of course, crypto-related ads.
The updated terms particularly hinder all users regardless of their geographic location or language from posting videos promoting any brand of financial products, FT Adviser reports. “According to TikTok’s branded content policy, the promotion of all financial services and products is now globally prohibited,” the FT Adviser report declared.
Martin Bamford, a spokesman at Informed Choice, said that TikTok is probably banning financial promoting content because they are misleading. “My interpretation of this is [TikTok] are clamping down on directly or indirectly sponsored content which leads to an affiliate link, for example, to sign up to a trading platform and get free stocks,” he said.
Bamford further added that the amount of promotional content on Tiktok is out of the norm, mostly promising a magic get-rich-quick pattern. “We see a huge amount of this branded content on TikTok, usually from poorly informed commentators, who lure in followers with promises of riches, but in reality are making their money off people signing up via affiliate links,” he stated.
Nevertheless, the ban on crypto-based promotions will barely affect leading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, considering that influencers rarely promoted these coins on the TikTok platform. However, the crippled meme coin will be severely affected.
TikTok: A Hotbed For Doge Promotion
During the entire late 2020 and early 2021, which can be considered as the Dogecoin frenzy, influencers used TikTok and other social platforms to share videos and encourage more people to invest in Dogecoin. It goes without saying that Dogecoin has a specially strong community, who used all their power to promote their meme coin.
However, there are valid concerns regarding Dogecoin promoting ads that target unskilled and amateur young folks. In general, these types of ads do not clearly disclose all the risks involved. In crypto, disclosing and showcasing the risks involved is crucial, as the UK previously banned several ads for not informing the risks involved explicitly.
In addition, the risks involved in investing in Dogecoin are immeasurably more when compared to other cryptocurrencies. For one, Dogecoin is an inflationary coin, meaning it was designed to become less valuable as time passes. Moreover, Dogecoin has no utility, contrasted to other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum that fuel an entire ecosystem — i.e. Decentralized Finance (DeFi).
via ZyCrypto