Google posts its new policy against fake news & ‘misrepresentative’ sites

Google has posted a new policy for AdSense publishers regarding advertising on pages and sites with “misrepresentative” content.

The new policy went live midday Tuesday, stating:

Users don’t want to be misled by the content they engage with online. For this reason, Google ads may not be placed on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about you, your content or the primary purpose of your web property.

Examples include “Enticing users to engage with content under false or unclear pretenses (e.g., deceptively presenting fake news articles as real).”

The update comes after Facebook and Google have been criticized for promoting and profiting from fake news content posted during the US election cycle. For more, see Web giants Google and Facebook seek to cut off revenues from fake news sites on our sister site, Search Engine Land.

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

As Third Door Media’s paid media reporter, Ginny Marvin writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She provides search marketing and demand generation advice for ecommerce companies and can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.