Google blocks 5.5bn bad adverts on its platform
Saturday April 06 2024
Of the blocked ads, 1.04 billion were taken down for “abusing the ad network,” which means that they contained information which led users to a malicious software, a compromised website, or an unwanted software. PHOTO | SHUTTERSTOCK
Tech giant Google last year blocked a record 5.5 billion advertisements on its platforms, a result of improved vigilance and a signal of growing misuse of online advertising across the globe.
In its Ads Safety Report published last week, Google said the number of blocked advertisements and advertiser accounts nearly doubled last year, hitting a record high.
This means that over the year, Google blocked an average of 15 million advertisements each day, and about 627,000 ‘bad’ ads every hour, an indication that advertisers are increasingly becoming ‘rogue.’
At the same time, over 12.7 million advertiser accounts were suspended, preventing their owners from posting any more advertisements on Google and its various platforms, which include YouTube, the search engine sharing its name and gmail.
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While it attributes it to increased vigilance owing to its adoption of more sophisticated Artificial Intelligence (AI) models in monitoring advertisements, there was also an influx of ‘inappropriate’ ads last year, the report says.
“This new AI technology introduced significant and exciting changes and challenges to the digital advertising industry and presents a unique opportunity to improve our enforcement efforts significantly,” says the report.
Of the blocked ads, 1.04 billion were taken down for “abusing the ad network,” which means that they contained information which led users to a malicious software, a compromised website, or an unwanted software.
Such promotional content is known to aid cybercriminals in hacking into or spying on users, and the surge echoes the rise in cybercrime activity across the globe over the last year.
In an earlier report, Google revealed that it detected a surge in commercial surveillance vendors, exploiting security loopholes to illegally spy on users; mostly journalists, activists and politicians.
The other reason for blocking advertisements last year was because they contained trademarked or copyrighted content without the consent of the owner. 548 million ads were blocked for this. Beside those blocked, Google also restricted about 6.9 billion ads last year.
Restricted ads are allowed to run, but on a limited basis, because they might contain culturally or legally sensitive content.