Google Suspend 2.9 Million Ad Accounts in an Election Year? Ads Safety Report Highlights

US technology giant Google stated on Wednesday that it took down more than 247 million ads and suspended close to 2.9 million advertiser accounts in the country during the past year. 

According to Google’s safety report, it took down more than 5.1 billion ads, blocked more than 9.1 billion ads, and suspended more than 39.2 million advertiser accounts. These measures indicate how sophisticated AI tools enabled the company to identify and block malicious or policy-breaking ads early, sometimes before they were even displayed to users.

Safeguarding Elections Worldwide
 

According to Google, in 2024, half of the world's population resided in a nation that held elections, making it a significant year for international elections. Since elections are being held in most countries in 2024, including India, Google has placed additional safeguarding measures to ensure election integrity.

Internationally, it authenticated more than 8,900 election advertisers and took down 10.7 million ads from non-authenticated sources. Google also became the first big platform to demand explicit labelling of AI-powered political ads.

“We were also the first company to launch disclosure requirements for AI-generated content in election ads, building on our existing transparency efforts around elections,” the report mentioned.

AI's Impact On Spotting Fraud 

Google reported in its 2024 Ads Safety Report that artificial intelligence, particularly large language models (LLMS), assisted in detecting fraud when people set up their accounts, blocking ads before they even had a chance to run. 

"AI is enhancing our capacity to stop fraudsters from ever showing ads to people," the company explained.

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Combatting Scam Ads and Deepfakes

Google mentioned that one of the major concerns in 2024 was the proliferation of AI-generated scam ads leveraging artificial celebrity images or voices. To combat this, Google created a team of 100+ specialists, updated its policy, and permanently suspended more than 700,000 accounts. The efforts resulted in a 90% reduction in such scam reports.

Google acted on 1.3 billion web pages with malicious content and reported more than 220,000 publisher websites. It also made sure 90% of adverts now originate from authenticated advertisers in over 200 nations.