Google has blocked 8 million ads related to the war in Ukraine this year. This was announced by Google on Wednesday at the same time as it released its annual figures on harmful ads.
The American search engine blocked or removed more than 3.4 billion advertisements in 2021. However, in 2020 there were still 3.1 billion advertisements.
Between 2020 and 2021, advertiser account suspensions tripled, from 1.7 million in 2020 to 5.6 million in 2021. In addition, Google removed ads from more than 1.7 billion pages last year and restricted more than 5.7 billion ads. This means limiting where the ads can be seen based on location, certification status and local regulations.
Google blocks or removes ads for various reasons, such as promoting a dangerous product or containing a computer virus the ad.
Putting ads on pause for sensitive or unpredictable events, as Google does with the war in Ukraine, is a common occurrence. The company does this to prevent people from taking advantage of the situation and spreading misleading information.
For example, Google has temporarily stopped selling advertising space in Russia, making it impossible for Russian state media to buy or sell ads.
