Google blocked a total of 3.1 billion ads in 2020, of which 99 million were related to Covid-19 and promised miracle cures and false doses of vaccines.
Google announced that it blocked or removed approximately 3.1 billion ads last year for violating its policies, and further restricted more than 6.4 billion ads.
“[In 2020] we blocked or removed approximately 3.1 billion ads for violating our policies and restricted more than 6.4 billion ads,” says Google in a statement, recalling that in 2020 its policies and their application were put to the test in the context of the global pandemic. The number of ads blocked or removed represented “a jump from 21 million in 2019”, he said.
According to data provided by Google, in 2020 more than 99 million ads related to Covid-19 were blocked, including the miracle cure ads, N95 masks due to the scarcity of supply, and, more recently, the false doses of vaccines.
“[In 2020] several elections were taking place in the world and the ongoing struggle against bad actors who were looking for new ways to take advantage of people online continued. Thousands of Googlers have worked hard to provide a safe experience for users, creators, publishers and advertisers. We added or updated more than 40 policies for advertisers and publishers ”, he says.
Google adds that 2021 marks a decade since the launch of the annual Ads Safety Report, which shows the work done to prevent malicious use of ad platforms. “Showing the ways in which we avoid policy violations in the ad ecosystem has always been a priority and this year we are sharing more data than ever before,” he stresses.
An advertiser identity verification program has also recently been launched. “We’re currently checking out advertisers in more than 20 countries and we’ve started sharing the advertiser’s name and location through our Why this ad feature, so people know who’s behind a specific ad and can thus take decisions based on more information ”, he says.
Google will also continue to invest in automated detection technology to perform more effective analysis on the Internet to verify publishers ' compliance with policies at scale.
With the increase in the number of Covid-19 cases earlier this year, Google began to apply a policy of sensitive events to prevent behavior, such as increasing prices on highly demanded products, such as hand sanitizer, masks and paper products, or advertisements promoting false cures.
“As we learned more about the virus and healthcare organizations issued new guidelines, we evolved our application strategy to start allowing medical providers, healthcare organizations, local governments and trusted companies to provide critical updates and content avoiding opportunistic abuse ”, he says.
“In addition, as claims and conspiracies about the origin and spread of the coronavirus circulated 'online', we launched a new policy to ban advertisements and monetized content about Covid-19 or other global health emergencies that contradicted scientific consensus”, he adds.
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