Looks like big social media is in the hot seat, as Europe’s top consumer watchdog has put crypto advertisements squarely in their crosshairs. On June 8th, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) served up a spicy report, “Hype or Harm? The Great Social Media Crypto Con,” detailing how consumers are unwittingly playing the risk game with crypto.
Social media giants Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok have been spotlighted as prime movers in the crypto ad game, with Facebook on the hook for allowing crypto ads to dance around its rules. The BEUC announcement tossed a rhetorical grenade, claiming these platforms are “responsible for allowing misleading advertisements of crypto to multiply through ads and influencers,” which exposes consumers to major monetary losses.
Twitter’s also in the doghouse, thanks to Elon Musk’s infamous Dogecoin promotions, with ‘finfluencers’ acting as the crypto pied pipers for younger audiences. Despite local efforts to quash these misleading promotions, the BEUC is pushing for a bigger, bolder approach.
Their roadmap? Utilizing the existing Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and rallying the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPCN) for a unified clampdown on platforms used for promoting crypto assets and services.
And while this is happening, the French Senate is playing a different tune, green-lighting registered crypto firms to use social media influencers for promotional campaigns. Looks like the crypto-ad saga is only just heating up.