US Government Expresses Concern That Facebook’s ‘Libra’ Could Be Used For Terrorism

Back in June, Facebook announced its own cryptocurrency called Libra. When it was announced, the US government immediately expressed their concerns about the technology. Now it seems that some of those concerns could be related to terrorism, at least that’s the perspective that the US Treasury has.

In a recently held press conference, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, “With respect to Facebook’s Libra and other developments in cryptocurrencies, our overriding goal is to maintain the integrity of our financial system and protect it from abuse.” He expressed his concern that Libra could potentially be used for terrorism, where due to the fact that cryptocurrencies are encrypted, they seem primed for illegal use.

In addition to terrorism, Mnuchin also said that it could potentially be used for other illicit activities such as tax evasion, extortion, ransomware, human trafficking, and more. However, Mnuchin isn’t shooting down the idea of cryptocurrency, and added that the US “welcomes responsible innovation, including new technologies that may improve the efficiency of the financial system and expand access to financial services.”

Whether or not Facebook has plans to deal with these kinds of issues with Libra remains to be seen, but the company did previously acknowledge that they would not be launching Libra until all regulatory issues have been resolved.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: cryptocurrency, Facebook