Google removed 99 million ads last year for fake treatments, fake vaccines and mouth masks. Offers of the latter category were also controversial in times of shortage.
This is evident from the annual figures on harmful advertisements, also known as ‘bad ads’. In total, the famous US search engine blocked or removed 3.1 billion ads. That’s almost 5,900 ads per minute.
The numbers are higher than in 2019 when Google removed 2.7 billion ads. But a few years ago, in 2017, more than 3.2 billion were cancelled worldwide.
For example, Google usually pays close attention to so-called phishing advertisements. Its makers secretly try to get hold of the personal data of unsuspecting people. But Google also imposes other restrictions.
For example, the company checks advertisements for medicines in every country to see whether the drugs are allowed. Due to the US presidential election, a lot of political advertising was also banned last year. This involved more than 5 million advertisements.
Putting ads on hold during sensitive or unpredictable events is more common to prevent the spread of misleading information. After the US Capitol building’s storming in January this year, advertisements of a political nature were also temporarily no longer displayed.
