Google Blocks, Removes 206.5 Mn Ads Violating Misrepresentation Policy

2024 is set to see close to three billion people in democracies around the world head to the polls. With the technological landscape witnessing a paradigm shift thanks to emerging technologies and Artificial Intelligence, digital media is also rife with misinformation, bad actors and fraudulent activities.

In its annual Ads Safety Report, Google showcased its efforts in combating ad fraud and ensuring consumer safety, even as numbers pointed to an ever-increasing incidence of inappropriate ads, misinformation and attempts at fraud. To repeat an analogy used during the media briefing by the tech giant before the release of the report, while Google was getting better at catching mice that were creeping in, the number of mice was also increasing.

In 2023, we blocked or removed over 5.5 billion ads, slightly up from the prior year and 12.7 million advertiser accounts, nearly double from the previous year. Similarly, we work to protect advertisers and people by removing our ads from publisher pages and sites that violate our policies, such as sexually explicit content or dangerous products. In 2023, we blocked or restricted ads from serving on more than 2.1 billion publisher pages, up slightly from 2022,” said Duncan Lennox, VP and GM of Ads Privacy and Safety, during a media briefing before the release of the report and in a subsequent blog.

The company said it was also getting better at tackling pervasive or egregious violations and took broader site-level enforcement action on more than 395,000 publisher sites in 2023, a substantial increase from the previous year. In another testament to the rapidly shifting digital ecosystem, Google reported 31 updates to its Ads and Publishers policies in 2023.

AI Everywhere

Given the ubiquity of (especially Generative) AI, Google announced it was turning increasingly to sophisticated Large Language Models to help identify and deal with rogue ads, in an expedited manner. Lennox noted, “To put the impact of AI on this work into perspective: last year more than 90% of our publisher page-level enforcement started with the use of machine learning models, including our latest LLMs. Of course, any advertiser or publisher can still appeal an enforcement action if they think we got it wrong. Our teams will review it and, in the cases where we find errors, use it to improve our systems.”

Fighting Ad Scams

As the number of bad ads by worse actors continues to rise, Google launched its Limited Ads Serving policy, designed to protect users by limiting the reach of advertisers with whom Google is less familiar. Under this policy, it has implemented a “get-to-know-you” period for advertisers who don’t yet have an established track record of good behaviour, during which impressions for their ads might be limited in certain circumstances—for example, when there is an unclear relationship between the advertiser and a brand they are referencing. Limited Ads Serving, which is still in its early stages, will help ensure well-intentioned advertisers can build up trust with users, while limiting the reach of bad actors and reducing the risk of scams and misleading ads.

Overall, Google blocked or removed 206.5 million advertisements for violating its misrepresentation policy, which includes many scam tactics and 273.4 million advertisements for violating its financial services policy. The company also blocked or removed over 1 billion advertisements for violating its policy against abusing the ad network, which includes promoting malware. “The fight against scam ads is an ongoing effort, as we see bad actors operating with more sophistication, at a greater scale, using new tactics such as deepfakes to deceive people,” said Lennox.

Poll Numbers

Given the large number of elections taking place across the globe, election ads were very much in focus, with Google touting its long-standing identity verification and transparency requirements for election advertisers, as well as restrictions on how these advertisers can target their election ads.

According to the company’s policy, all election ads must also include a “paid for by” disclosure and are compiled in our publicly available transparency report. In 2023, Google verified more than 5,000 new election advertisers and removed more than 7.3M election ads that came from advertisers who did not complete verification.

“As more advertisers leverage the power and opportunity of AI, we want to make sure we continue to provide people with the greater transparency and the information they need to make informed decisions. Additionally, we’ve continued to enforce our policies against ads that promote demonstrably false election claims that could undermine trust or participation in democratic processes,” said Lennox.

Alejandro Borgia, Director Product Manager, Ads Safety, who was present at the briefing, told exchange4media, that even while Google had global policies which it made as scalable as possible, because of varying legislation and legal requirements of different countries, some of the company's policies could be adjusted to meet them