Organizations from Russia, China, and South Korea have come together to form a joint lawsuit against the four social media and tech giants that have recently banned crypto ads.
Cryptocurrency and Blockchain associations in Russia, China, and South Korea are planning to file a joint lawsuit in May against Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Yandex for not allowing crypto-related advertising, local news outlet TASS reported yesterday, March 27.
At the end of January, Facebook announced a crypto advertisement ban citing “misleading or deceptive promotional practices,” with Google following suit in March, although their ban will not take effect until June. Most recently, Twitter confirmed they will also ban crypto-related ads, specifically for Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) and token sales. Yandex is also expected to enact its own set of prohibitive measures, according to local media reports.
The organizations involved in the upcoming lawsuit against the four social media and tech giants are the Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain (RACIB), the Korea Venture Business Associations, and LCBT, a Chinese association of crypto investors.
Yury Pripachkin, the president of RACIB, said at the Blockchain-RF 2018 conference held in Moscow from March 27-28 that the actions of these four tech companies have negatively affected the crypto market:
“We believe that this is a use of the monopoly position of these four companies, which have entered into a cartel agreement with each other in order to manipulate the market. The ban from these four organizations has led to a significant drop in the market in recent months.”
The organizations have created the Eurasian Association of Blockchain in order to create a fund to support and formulate the lawsuit. According to local news outlet RIA Novosti, Pripachkin said that anyone interested can “chip in” to the crypto fund. Pripachkin added that a claim will also be filed against the companies’ shareholders if they have crypto wallets:
“We believe that if it turns out that the shareholders or managers of these companies own crypto wallets which they use for personal gain, using the position of their companies, they are subject to prosecution.”
The lawsuit will be filed in the US, as Pripachkin noted that some US states are “loyal” to cryptocurrencies, specifically mentioning Wyoming. In the past two months, the Wyoming legislature has passed laws to exempt crypto from state property taxes and relax securities regulations.
