Google's big crackdown: 1.7 billion bad ads axed, plus bans for 200 fake news sites
Summary:With a new policy after the US election, Google reveals the results of its actions to limit fake news sites. Google has released its 2016 Bad Ads report, to show how serious it is about combating deviants who abuse its massive ad network, from fraudulent advertisers to phony news sites. The company says it axed 1.7 billion bad ads in 2016, just over double the 780 million it took down in 2015 for violating its various policies. In 2016 it also introduced important new policies to combat the rise of fake news. In the wake of Brexit and the US election, Facebook, Twitter, and Google were criticized for not doing enough to prevent fake news spreading on their platforms. In November, Google introduced a new AdSense policy for publishers to prevent fake news sites from generating ad revenue on its platform. Since launching the policy, Google says it has permanently banned nearly 200 AdSense publishers for violating its new rules against "misrepresentative con