<story><title>Google will ban all cryptocurrency-related advertising</title><url>https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/13/google-bans-crypto-ads.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>freedomben</author><text>Google is a private business and they can do what they want, but this disappoints me.  More and more Google seems to be thinking of themselves as content police (consider YouTube is owned by Google also), and I think that&amp;#x27;s a shame.  Perhaps it will open up a market for dethroning them.  A serious YouTube competitor that doesn&amp;#x27;t demonetize content they find disagreeable would be very healthy, IMHO.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gkoberger</author><text>They&amp;#x27;re stopping ads, not content.&lt;p&gt;Content and ads are very different things. Stopping lucrative crypto ads certainly will financially hurt Google, but is definitely a win for consumers. Most crypto advertising is 100% scams. There&amp;#x27;s a huge difference between letting someone speak their mind on your platform (content) versus accepting money to broadcast their message on your platform (ads).&lt;p&gt;As for content, that&amp;#x27;s completely different (and a slippery slope). I won&amp;#x27;t pick a side on free speech vs protecting people, but I will say I&amp;#x27;m very glad I don&amp;#x27;t have to choose where to draw the line.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google will ban all cryptocurrency-related advertising</title><url>https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/13/google-bans-crypto-ads.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>freedomben</author><text>Google is a private business and they can do what they want, but this disappoints me.  More and more Google seems to be thinking of themselves as content police (consider YouTube is owned by Google also), and I think that&amp;#x27;s a shame.  Perhaps it will open up a market for dethroning them.  A serious YouTube competitor that doesn&amp;#x27;t demonetize content they find disagreeable would be very healthy, IMHO.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>RestlessMind</author><text>My livelihood depends on online advertising and yet I have the opposite feelings. Google (and Facebook and Reddit etc) should be doing more content policing, especially for the content monetized by advertising, and should be held liable for the content which they monetize.&lt;p&gt;Right now, no one is responsible for the poisonous mixture of fake-news &amp;#x2F; radicalizing context coupled with attention based internet economy where the only incentive an internet content business has is to grab more and more eyeballs. Google (and others) simply shirk their failures by claiming &amp;quot;to give users what they want&amp;quot;, when instead their employees are busy devising more and more elaborate ways to grab someone&amp;#x27;s eyeballs.</text></comment>