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<h1>Google Quietly Removes “Fake News” Language From Its Advertising Policy</h1>
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<a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog"><span>Blog</span></a> ›››
<time datetime="2017-01-12T13:28:32-05:00">
January 12, 2017 1:28 PM EST </time>
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<a href="http://mediamatters.org/authors/brennan-suen/285" class="gmail-author-link">BRENNAN SUEN</a> & <a href="http://mediamatters.org/authors/tyler-cherry/299" class="gmail-author-link">TYLER CHERRY</a> </span>
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<p><img alt="" src="http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/uploader/image/2017/01/10/GOOGLE_FAKENEWS.png" height="338" width="645"></p>
<p><em>UPDATE: See below for Google’s response.</em></p>
<p>Google has removed language referencing fake news from its
“prohibited content” policy for websites that use its advertising
network. The policy previously stated that these sites cannot engage in
“deceptively presenting fake news articles as real.”</p>
<p>As of January 10, at least 20 of the <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/12/14/websites-peddling-fake-news-still-using-google-ads-nearly-month-after-google-announced-ban/214811" style="text-decoration:none">24 fake news-purveying</a> websites flagged by <em>Media Matters</em>
in December were still using Google’s advertising network, Google
AdSense, despite Google’s November 14 announcement that it would
restrict websites from using the network if they feature
misrepresentative content. That announcement drew a wave of positive
press saying Google was combating fake news, but it appears not to have
led to the promised changes. </p>
<p>In December,<em> Media Matters</em> shared its findings directly with
Google and asked the company to enforce its new policy. A Google
spokesperson initially took issue with the characterization that it has a
policy on “fake news,” stating that the company had “no policy specific
to fake news.” <em>Media Matters</em> responded with a screenshot of
Google’s policy page that explicitly cited “fake news” as an example of
unacceptable content and offered additional evidence demonstrating that
the flagged sites were in violation of Google’s policy.</p>
<p>Google proceeded to leave the ads on the misrepresentative sites,
instead quietly removing the reference to “fake news” from its
much-lauded "fake news" policy.</p>
<p>On December 14, <em style="font-style:italic">Media Matters</em> flagged 24 <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/12/15/understanding-fake-news-universe/214819" style="text-decoration:none">fake news-purveying</a>
websites -- websites that share or aggregate demonstrably fabricated
stories packaged to appear as legitimate news -- using Google’s
advertising service exactly one month after Google <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/12/14/google-officials-promised-stop-making-fake-news-profitable-one-month-later-theyve-failed/214812" style="text-decoration:none">announced</a>
its ban. A January 10 review of these websites found that at least 20
of those pages are still running ads supported by Google AdSense (at
least one of the websites, <a href="http://observatorial.com/" style="text-decoration:none">Observatorial</a>, is now essentially defunct). The hyperlinked list of images at <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2017/01/12/google-quietly-removes-fake-news-language-its-advertising-policy/214972#examples">the bottom of this post</a>
shows screenshots of the sites that were still running ads that
utilized Google's advertising service, which are marked with a blue
triangle icon that reveals the words “AdChoices” when scrolled over and
redirect to a Google ads page when clicked.</p>
<p>At the time that <em style="font-style:italic">Media Matters</em>
flagged the fake news-purveying websites for hosting Google ads, Google
AdSense’s official policy on “prohibited content” included language
explicitly noting that websites “deceptively presenting fake news
articles as real” were prohibited from hosting Google ads. That language
has since been removed from the <a href="https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/1348688?hl=en#Misrepresentative_content" style="text-decoration:none">policy page</a> without explanation (click image to enlarge):</p>
<p><a href="http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/uploader/image/2017/01/11/fn1_2.png"><img alt="" src="http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/uploader/image/2017/01/12/googlepolicy2474274272.jpg" height="289" width="645"></a></p>
<p>Both Google and these websites <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/12/14/google-officials-promised-stop-making-fake-news-profitable-one-month-later-theyve-failed/214812" style="text-decoration:none">benefit financially</a> when the sites use the advertising network, which no doubt incentivizes the sites' creation of popular fake news content.</p>
With Google’s original announcement saying it would ban
misrepresentative content from using its advertising services and the
explicit reference to “fake news” in its prohibited-content policies,
the company seemed to be taking concrete steps to combat the epidemic of
fake news. Its public announcement drew positive press from major news
outlets like <em><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/technology/google-will-ban-websites-that-host-fake-news-from-using-its-ad-service.html?_r=1">The New York Times</a>,</em> <em><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/11/facebook-and-google-wont-let-fake-news-sites-use-their-ads-platforms/507737/">The Atlantic</a></em>, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-advertising-idUSKBN1392MM" style="text-decoration:none">Reuters</a>, and <em><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/google-to-bar-fake-news-websites-from-using-its-ad-selling-software-1479164646">The Wall Street Journal</a></em>,
all of which hailed the restriction as applying to websites that put
out fake news. But Google’s refusal to take action against websites in
violation of its announced decision about misrepresentative content --
and its removal of explicit “fake news” language from its policy --
indicates that the promise to ban these problematic operators might have
just been a public relations move.<br><br clear="all"><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1599826c0f654295?compose=15998b5339714ed1">https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1599826c0f654295?compose=15998b5339714ed1</a><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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