In its 2024 Ads Safety Report, Google revealed that it removed more than 10.7 million election-related ads from unverified advertisers, marking a 46% rise compared to 2023. The tech giant attributed this large-scale enforcement to the growing misuse of digital platforms during critical political events, including India’s Lok Sabha elections.
According to Alex Rodriguez, General Manager of Ads Safety at Google, while political ads form a relatively small portion of total advertisements, they receive heightened scrutiny due to their impact. Speaking at a virtual press briefing, Rodriguez stated, “The most significant outlier this year was the spike in account suspensions, primarily driven by fraud and scam-related activities.”
Despite declining to provide an exact percentage of political ads in the global ad volume, Google confirmed that in India, digital platforms played a key role in shaping voter opinions. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for instance, spent nearly ₹156.95 crore on Google platforms and ₹24.63 crore on Meta platforms during the 2024 election campaign.
To maintain transparency, Google mandates a “paid for by” disclosure on all election ads. In 2023, the platform also began requiring clear labeling for AI-generated election content. Over 8,900 new election advertisers were verified globally in 2024 as part of this initiative, ensuring ads originate from verified sources within the countries where the campaigns run.
Globally, Google took down a staggering 5.1 billion ads and suspended 39.2 million advertiser accounts, tripling from 12.7 million suspensions in 2023. Interestingly, 2.9 million of these banned accounts were linked to India.
One of the most troubling trends in 2024 was the rise of public figure impersonation scams, where deepfakes and AI-generated media were used to mislead users by imitating celebrities or politicians. Google said it suspended over 700,000 ad accounts for violating its misrepresentation policies and claimed a 90% reduction in such scams following enforcement.
Here’s a breakdown of the types of ads blocked:
- 793.1 million ads were flagged for network abuse, such as malware and deceptive tactics.
- 146 million ads were removed for violating gambling policies.
- 122.5 million were blocked for adult content.
- Just 890,000 ads faced action for promoting counterfeit products — the lowest among all categories.
India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has consistently advised platforms like Google to avoid hosting gambling or betting-related ads, which remain illegal in most states.
Beyond removals, Google also restricted 9.1 billion ads globally due to legal, ethical, or regional sensitivities. These included:
- 428.8 million for legal restrictions
- 108.9 million related to gambling
- 96 million in adult content
- 115.1 million for copyright violations
- 106.6 million in the healthcare and pharmaceutical category
Additionally, Google enforced content restrictions on 1.3 billion publisher pages and took site-level actions on over 220,000 publisher websites for non-compliance.
Google’s report emphasizes its ongoing commitment to transparency, safety, and ethical ad practices as the digital landscape becomes increasingly complex.
