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Google has blacklisted the use of the word 'Ethereum' as a keyword on its Google Ads advertising platform. This was brought to the attention of the crypto community by Serbia-based startup Decenter.
Decenter is made up of a group of developers that conduct security audits for smart contracts built on the Ethereum (ETH) network. When searching for phrases relevant to its activities in order to help promote the business, the team found that those containing the word 'Ethereum' were no longer showing ads. Other crypto keywords like 'EOS' were still coming up with results, but 'Ethereum' had apparently been blacklisted in all regions.
Hi there, thanks for reaching out. Advertisers may promote cryptocurrency exchanges that target the United States and Japan. Hence, you may not be able to run ads which target other countries. Hope this helps. Do let us know if you have any additional questions. -Chetan
— Google Ads (@GoogleAds) January 10, 2019
After posting their findings on Twitter, the official account for Google Ads responed to Decenter, although its explanation was far from satisfactory. It claimed that the promotion of crypto exchanges outside the U.S. and Japan was likely to be blocked, and referred the team to its official policy guidelines for further explanation.
Concerned that the internet's (and probably the world's) most influential company was attempting to restrict the online visibility of Ethereum, the team turned to Reddit for answers. Predictably, the decentralization-focused r/Ethereum community came out against Google (and its parent company Alphabet, Inc.), pointing out that its censorship and meddling in political and economic issues was nothing new.
Read more: 9 Ethereum price predictions for 2019 by crypto experts