17 Million Gambling Ads Removed by Google in 2016
Search engine giant Google has recently announced that the company has removed just over 1.7 billion “bad ads” in 2016, a term that the company applies to any type of advertising that violates its policies. Of the ads removed in 2016, 17 million were related to gambling, making them less than 1% of all ads targeted by Google as part of the company’s initiative to protect Internet users from misleading or potentially harmful ads.
The figures in this year’s report shows that the company is taking advertising quality and policy compliance seriously. The total number of advertisements removed in 2016 is close to double that of 2015, when Google took down nearly 780 million ads.
Although Google permits ads for both online and offline gambling on its network, advertisers are required to follow strict guidelines to ensure that their ads meet all applicable policies. According to a statement issued by the company, the gambling ads taken down in 2016 were removed as the websites being promoted lacked proper authorization from regulatory authorities in the countries where they operate. Another reason why the number of gambling ads removed has grown is the fact that legislators in many countries are now starting to address online services that previously fell into a sort of legal gray area. This is most notably the case for websites allowing bets on esports or online games, as well as offering prizes for predicting activities on financial markets.
While the number of gambling-related ads that were removed by the search engine giant has grown, the industry is far from being the largest source of “bad ads” on Google’s large advertising network. Google has increased action against advertisers promoting “unapproved pharmaceuticals,” taking down 68 million such ads, an increase of 500 percent from last year. Ads in the pharmaceuticals category may be removed if they promote unlicensed Internet pharmacy sites, as well as certain unapproved medicines or dietary supplements.
Another practice that Google has been cracking down on is called “tabloid cloaking.” It involves advertisers trying to pass themselves off as legitimate news or editorial sites, then directing users to a website that promotes dubious commercial products. According to their 2016 report, the search engine has suspended 1,300 accounts for using this practice.
While Google has always removed ads that deceived users into downloading malware or spyware, the number of such ads taken down has grown by 600 percent in 2016, reaching 112 million. Deceptive mobile ads have also been targeted, especially those that download an app to the visitor’s mobile device without asking for permission first. 23,000 ads in this category were removed in 2016.
