Dive Brief:

• Pinterest moved to ban affiliate links from its site, preventing online retailers and other websites from tracking sources that directed customers to them. 
• Pinterest says that the move is designed to maintain the quality of its site content—the pictures users “pin” to a virtual bulletin board. 
• The site’s “Power Pinners” previously received payment for directing users to e-commerce sites through their pins.

Dive Insight:

Pinterest will no longer allow affiliate links, banning users from collecting fees for referring consumers to other sites. While Pinterest banned most users from engaging in affiliate marketing through the site several years ago, it continued to allowed a few “Power Pinners” and companies to continue getting paid for links.

With last week’s announcement that it will soon add a “Buy” button, the move is seen as a precursor to Pinterest taking control of the considerable e-commerce it generates with its exhaustive, mostly user-generated virtual bulletin boards. The company says it is removing affiliate links to speed click-through rates, remove spam content, and otherwise improve the user experience.