Facebook has announced that it is effectively banning all advertisements on cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs). The popular social media platform announced the new changes to its policy regarding ads in an official announcement on 31st of January.

In the statement released by Rob Leathern, Facebook\'s Product Management Director, the company reaffirmed their dedication to only promoting advertisements that were safe and put their \"users first\". As such, advertisements selling ICOs and cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin and Ripple, are to be prohibited because of their frequent associations with promotional practices that are alleged to be deceptive or misleading. 

Facebook stressed their dedication to ensuring that people could discover new services and exciting products through the advertisements on the website, without having to worry about potentially becoming the victim of a scam. They argued that there are currently many businesses in operation who advertise ICOS, crypto and binary options that do not operate \"in good faith\". 

Facebook said that their new policy was intentionally broad, as they sought to uncover more effective practices to help enable them to detect misleading advertisements more efficiently and to ensure that they were swiftly removed from the company\'s social media networks, including Audience Network, Instagram and Facebook. 

Facebook claimed that the new policy changes reflected an ongoing dedication to ensuring that scammers looking to make a profit are not using the platform.