Search engine giant Google has suspended no fewer than 39 million advertiser accounts on its platform as it intensifies its latest crackdown on ad fraud and policy violations.
The number of suspended accounts that were determined to have broken Google’s stringent ad regulations, including impersonation, malware, and fraud, is among the largest ever reported, representing a 29% rise from the year 2023.
Users across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas were impacted by the global bans that targeted areas with high fraud activity and resulted from common infractions such as phishing attempts and the promotion of hazardous or fraudulent products.
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Google in a statement said that it could suspend a “vast majority” of ad accounts before they even ran an ad by utilizing large language models (LLMs) and signs including fraudulent payment information and company impersonation.
“While these AI models are very, very important to us and have delivered a series of impressive improvements, we still have humans involved throughout the process,” said Alex Rodriguez, a general manager for Ads Safety at Google, in a virtual media roundtable.
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