Google, one of the two largest advertising platforms, is implementing restrictions in an attempt to cut down number of fake news stories. During the 2016 Presidential election, Google, along with the other advertising giant, Facebook, were accused of influencing the results of the election due to the number of fake news stories on their websites.
Both advertising giants are taking steps to address the problem of fake news stories. Google is introducing a change to their advertising policy that is aimed at preventing revenue from being made by these sites that post fake news. The new policy prohibits fake news sites from using Google Display Network to display their advertisements.
In a statement released by Google, “We’ve been working on an update to our publisher policies and will start prohibiting Google ads from being placed on misrepresentative content, just as we disallow misrepresentation in our ads policies. Moving forward, we will restrict ad serving on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher’s content, or the primary purpose of the web property.”
It will take time to see if this new policy change will have the effect that is intended. Initially, if the number of fake news sites dwindles in the coming months, it will be difficult to determine if the decrease is due to the new policy, or if it is due to the election having ended.
