Blocked Over 5 Lakh Pages Running COVID-19 Ads Last Year, Says Google In Ad Safety Report 2021

Google blocked more than five lakh pages from running ads related to COVID-19 in 2021 as they violated the company's policies.

Google also blocked as many as 10.6 crore ads related to COVID-19 since the beginning of pandemic. Image: Google

New Delhi: Continuing with its efforts to check the spread of bad content on its ads platforms, Google blocked more than five lakh pages from running ads related to COVID-19 in 2021 as they violated the company's policies. Google also blocked as many as 106 million or 10.6 crore ads related to COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, the company said while announcing its ‘Ad Safety Report 2021’ report. 

The big tech firm also mentioned that it prevented abuse in ads related to coronavirus which was "especially important in 2021" for claims related to vaccines, testing and price-gouging for critical supplies like masks.

"In 2021, we doubled down on our enforcement of unreliable content. We blocked ads from running on more than 500,000 pages that violated our policies against harmful health claims related to COVID-19 and demonstrably false claims that could undermine trust and participation in elections. Late last year, we also launched a new Unreliable Claims policy on climate change, which prohibits content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around its existence and causes," Scott Spencer, VP of Product Management, Ads Privacy and Safety, said in a statement.

In its Ad Safety Report 2021 report, Google also said that it helped local NGOs and governments with $250 million in Ad Grants to help connect people to accurate vaccine information.

In the past one year, the company has added or updated more than 30 policies for advertisers and publishers including a policy prohibiting claims that promote climate change denial and certification for US-based health insurance providers to only allow ads from government exchanges, first-party providers and licensed third-party brokers.

Apart from taking down bad content related to COVID-19, the company also removed more than 3.4 billion ads, restricted over 5.7 billion ads and suspended over 5.6 million advertiser accounts last year. "We also blocked or restricted ads from serving on 1.7 billion publisher pages, and took broader site-level enforcement action on approximately 63,000 publisher sites," Spencer informed.

"And as the digital world evolves, our policy development and enforcement strategies evolve with it — helping to prevent abuse while allowing businesses to reach new customers and grow. We’ve continued to invest in our policies, teams of experts and enforcement technology to stay ahead of potential threats. In 2021, we introduced a multi-strike system for repeat policy violations," Spencer added.