Eurasian Blockchain Association Sues Social Media Giants Over Ad Bans

The Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain (RACIB), along with industry associations of China and South Korea, is preparing to file a class action lawsuit against Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Yandex for banning ads related to initial coin offerings (ICOs) and cryptocurrencies. RACIB president Yuri Pripachkin made this public before media representatives at the BlockchainRF Congress 2018, which started on March 27.

As reported by Pripachkin, the lawsuit will be filed in US courts through a newly created body called the Eurasian Blockchain Association (EBA). He stated that a crypto fund would be established, and everyone can contribute to it.

“We proceed from the fact that the US legislation has a serious attitude on the restriction of freedom of entrepreneurial activity. Therefore, the prospects for this lawsuit are quite serious,” he explained.

He went on to add:

“We believe that there is a cartel conspiracy between these organizations and it is aimed at regulating the market in the interests of shareholders and management of these organizations. The ban on ads has already led to a decline in the [crypto] market value by tens of billions of dollars. For example, Twitter itself collects funds through its own ICO, while simultaneously making a decision to limit the ads of other cryptocurrencies, which is unacceptable.”

Pripachkin made it clear that the lawsuit would be filed in May but a plan is yet to be drafted.

In January, Facebook banned ads related to ICOs, cryptocurrencies, and binary options, the latter being a form of online trading. This measure was meant to support the virtue and security of financial product advertising in the social network.

Two weeks ago, we announced that Google’s parent company, Alphabet, had decided to follow suit and ban crypto-related ads starting from June this year.

This Monday, Twitter confirmed it would ban crypto- and ICO-related ads as well.