Cleaning up illegal ads! Google blocks or removes more than 3 billion ads throughout the year

Recently, Google revealed in its annual ad safety report that it blocked or removed about 3.1 billion ads last year . Among them, about 867 million ads were blocked or removed due to abuse of the ad network , and 91 million ads were removed for violating legal requirements .

Google also blocked more than 99 million COVID-19 - related ads throughout the year , including ads for miracle cures , N95 masks , fake vaccine reagents, and more.

In addition, Google restricted 6.4 billion ads last year that were deemed "legally or culturally sensitive . " 550 million restricted ads violated legal requirements related to regulated industries, including 80 million ads placed by alcohol brands.

These restricted ads are not removed from the platform but are “only allowed on a limited basis.” In the words of Scott Spencer, VP of Ads Privacy and Safety : “Limiting ads allows us to tailor our approach based on geography, local laws, and our certification program so that approved ads are only shown where appropriate, regulated, and legal.”

In terms of content moderation, Google added or updated 40 policies for advertisers and publishers in 2020 and removed ads from 1.3 billion publisher web pages, up from only 21 million in 2019 .

Google has also cracked down on fraud and introduced an advertiser identity verification program and a business operations verification program to detect promotion of non-existent businesses, fraudulent ads, etc.  

With the support of these new policies, the number of ad accounts suspended for policy violations increased from 1 million to 1.7 million last year . Of the approximately 3.1 billion ads blocked or removed , 101 million of them were due to violations of Google's misrepresentation policy.

Not only Google, but major platforms are also actively controlling false information on their platforms, such as Facebook.

Facebook said recently that it shut down 1.3 billion fake accounts between October and December and had more than 35,000 staff members to deal with misinformation on the platform .

The company also said in a blog post that it removed more than 12 million pieces of content related to COVID-19 and vaccines that had been flagged as misinformation by global health experts.

In summary, sellers need to pay attention to the fact that they must comply with platform policies when placing advertisements, and they should also be cautious when placing advertisements involving sensitive topics.

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