Search engine giant yesterday released its 2022 Ads Safety Report, where it was revealed that a total of 5.2 billion ads, were removed, restricted over 4.3 billion ads and suspended over 6.7 million advertiser accounts.
In the report by Alejandro Borgia, Director, Product Management, Ads Safety, Google said these figures represent an increase of 2 billion more ads removed in 2022 from the previous year.
“We blocked or restricted ads from serving on over 1.5 billion publisher pages and took broader site-level enforcement action on over 143,000 publisher sites,” it added.
According to Google, these policies were enforced after relying on a combination of human reviews and automated systems powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. “This helps sot through content and better detect violations across the globe,” it said.
The move is part of Google’s effort to sanitise the Internet and reciprocate people’s trust. “We know that people and businesses put enormous trust in Google when they use our products. That’s why we have thousands of people working around the clock to create and enforce effective advertiser and publisher policies to prevent abuse while enabling publishers and businesses of all sizes to thrive. We do this important work because a healthy ad-supported internet means everyone can access quality information,” it explained.
It added that as the digital world continues to evolve, it makes ongoing investments in its policies and enforcement so people can have the safest possible experience online.
In 2022, Google added or updated 29 policies for advertisers and publishers. This included expanding its financial services verification program to 10 new countries, expanding teen protections and strengthening our election ads policies.
Other items in the report include
Protecting Users from Fraud and Scams: Fraudulent activity continues to rise. In 2022 Google expanded its financial services certification program which requires advertisers to demonstrate that they are authorized by their local regulator to promote their products and services. This measure adds a new layer of security against fraudsters and further safeguards people from financial scams.
Blocking and Removing Harmful Content and Combating Misinformation: Google has developed extensive measures to tackle misinformation and unreliable claims in its advertising ecosystem. This includes its policies against harmful health claims and demonstrably false claims that could undermine trust and participation in elections. It has also developed an industry-leading policy against climate change denial. In 2022, it blocked ads from running on over 300,000 publisher pages that violated these policies and blocked over 24 million policy-violating ads from serving.
Responding to the War in Ukraine: Following the start of the war in Ukraine, Google acted quickly to prohibit ads that exploit, dismiss or condone the war. This is in addition to its longstanding policies prohibiting content that incites violence or denies the occurrence of tragic events to run as ads or monetize using our services.
Prioritizing Child Safety: One of Google’s top priorities when designing products and creating policies is to ensure the safety of kids and teens around the world. That’s why it has long blocked ads targeting and personalization for young kids.
Empowering Users with More Information and Control: In addition to our policies and enforcement, Google is committed to leading the industry in giving users more information about the ads they see and putting them in control of their ads experience. In October, it launched My Ads Center which helps people control the kinds of ads they see across Google on Search, YouTube and Discover.
Looking Ahead to 2023: Providing a safe and trustworthy ads experience for users is a critical contribution to Google’s mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and helpful. As 2023 continues, we will continue to combat abuse across our platforms while helping advertisers and publishers grow their businesses.