When digital goliaths Google and Facebook, increasingly the societal arbitrators of acceptable free speech, decided to ban paid communications from cryptocurrency advertising it sent a message. In a blog post on the Google website, Scott Spencer, director of sustainable ads, lumped cryptocurrency advertising in with addiction treatment centers and online gambling services to describe “new threats” to the user experience. A point Spencer made clear was the “unregulated” and “speculative” nature of the financial products being advertised was driving adverse inferences.
It is into this hornets’ nest that Chris Hehmeyer, former Chair of the...