Google Eliminates 247.4 Million Ads in India Last Year, Suspends 2.9 Million Ad Accounts

Key Takeaways

Google removed 247.4 million ads in India last year.
2.9 million advertiser accounts were suspended.
Major violations included financial services and gambling/games.
Over 8,900 new election advertisers were verified.
Countermeasures against AI-generated scams were implemented.

New Delhi, April 16 (NationPress) On Wednesday, Google reported that it eliminated 247.4 million ads in India over the past year, while also suspending 2.9 million advertiser accounts within the nation.

The primary policy infringements involved financial services, trademark issues, misuse of the ad network, personalized ads, and gambling/games, as highlighted in the company's '2024 Ads Safety Report'.

2024 was significant for global elections, including in India. “As part of this initiative, we broadened our identity verification and transparency requirements for election advertisers to additional countries,” stated the tech company.

In the past year alone, Google verified over 8,900 new election advertisers and removed 10.7 million election ads from unverified accounts worldwide.

These initiatives, which include “paid for by” disclosures and a public transparency report of all election advertisements, assist users globally in recognizing election ads and understanding who financed the ads they encounter.

The search engine giant further noted that last year, more than 5.1 billion ads were removed, over 9.1 billion ads were restricted, and more than 39.2 million advertiser accounts were suspended.

Ads on 1.3 billion publisher pages faced blocking or restrictions, with broader site-level enforcement actions taken on over 220,000 publisher sites.

Over 30 updates to the Ads and Publisher policies were introduced in the previous year “to continue refining our policies”.

The company also adjusted its defenses against the continually evolving scams, particularly the rise of AI-generated public figure impersonation ads.

“In response, a team of over 100 experts was assembled to create countermeasures, such as updating the Misrepresentation policy to suspend advertisers promoting these scams,” explained Google.

This led to the permanent suspension of more than 700,000 offending advertiser accounts, resulting in a 90 percent reduction in reports of this type of scam ad last year.

With billions relying on Google for accurate information, including advertisements, our dedicated team works diligently to safeguard the digital advertising ecosystem,” concluded Google.