Over 99 million COVID-19 Fake Ads Blocked By Google in 2020

Part of winning the war against the deadly Coronavirus also means that we consistently put off fake news or information about Covid-19. And Google, Facebook and Twitter are at the forefront of this. 

In an annual Ad Safety Report, the tech giant said it enforced its sensitive events policy to prevent behaviour like price-gouging on in-demand products like hand sanitiser, masks and paper goods, or ads promoting false cures. 

The report also read, “In total, we blocked over 99 million Covid-related ads in 2020, including those for miracle cures, N95 masks due to supply shortages of fake vaccine doses”. This was to prohibit more claims and conspiracies about the coronavirus’s origin from spreading or circulating online. 

Further statistics from the report showed that the number of ad accounts disabled by Google for policy violations increased by 70 per cent from 1 million to over 1.7 million. The company also blocked or removed over 867 million ads for attempting to evade its detection systems, including cloaking, and an additional 101 million ads for violating its misrepresentation policies.

Last year, the company invested in automated detection technology to effectively scan the web for publisher policy compliance at scale. It then expanded its verification programme and confirmed more than 5,400 additional election advertisers. It discontinued – temporarily – more than five million ads and blocked over three billion Search queries referencing the election, the candidates or its outcome.