Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. (Jeff Roberson/AP)Facebook is cracking down on cryptocurrencies by using one of its most powerful tools: access to its massive advertising megaphone. “We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception,” wrote Rob Leathern, a product management director at Facebook, in a blog post. The spectacular spike in prices last year of bitcoin and many alternative cryptocurrencies has sparked a surge of interest among investors and companies of all kinds. The announcement comes weeks after Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged the potential of cryptocurrencies to wrest power away from “centralized systems.”“They come with the risk of being harder to control,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.

Source: Washington Post January 30, 2018 20:11 UTC