TikTok Bans Paid Promotions of Crypto and Forex Trading Products

TikTok, an insanely popular video-sharing social media platform, has updated its branded content policy, prohibiting users from posting any promotional content on cryptocurrency and foreign exchange (forex) trading products.

As seen on the platform’s policy page, it prohibits promotions of an array of financial products and services that include lending and management of money assets, loans and credit cards, buy now pay later (BNPL) services, trading platforms, pyramid schemes, investment services and many more.

The ByteDance-owned social media company defines branded content as the one where the content creator “will receive (or have already received) something of value from a third party such as a brand in exchange for your post, to promote that brand’s products or service, or which you may otherwise need to disclose in accordance with your local laws or regulations.”

“It could be a brand endorsement, partnership, or other kinds of promotion for a product or service,” the company noted.

Moreover, the social media platform bans the promotion of weapons, cigarettes and tobacco products, gambling and political content.

Retail Trading Frenzy Makes TikTok Cautious

The latest entry of crypto and forex trading services in the prohibited braided content list came as retail trading demand skyrocketed recently. TikTok has been flooded with investment-related content lately, which is being posted with the hashtag ‘#investing’ and reportedly received over 2.8 billion views.

However, the ban is only limited to branded content, and the platform will still allow content creators to post their personal views on the flagged services, including crypto and forex trading products.

TikTok is one of the top mobile-based social media platforms and is available in more than 150 countries. It has over a billion users globally and has been downloaded over 200 million times in the United States alone. Its original Chinese version, Douyin, is estimated to have 689 million users in the country.

With a significant young-aged user base, TikTok has recently started to tighten its control over the published content and removed almost 72 million videos last week for violation of its community guidelines.

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