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Google Has Banned Hundreds of Web Publishers From Using Its Ad Platform

Photo: James Leynse/Getty Images

In the three months since Google instated a policy banning websites that intentionally publish misleading or outright false news from using its AdSense platform, more than 200 have been excised. According to Recode, not all of the sites were related to so-called “fake news.”

Google and Facebook both issued their new rules back in November, within a day of each other, after concerns about how their platforms help users distribute hoaxes came to the fore in the wake of the election.

Sites that publish intentionally inaccurate stories in order to rile up a political base and garner attention typically use the programmatic ad networks, which dynamically place ads next to site content, in order to earn hundreds of thousand of dollars. The thinking goes that, by removing the financial incentive, these sites will recede from prominence.

Google Banned Hundreds of Publishers From Its Ad Platform