Google Joins Facebook On War Against Fake News, But Declined To Provide Listing of Banned Sites

Under increased pressure for supporting the proliferation of fake news, Google has finally taken actions, removing over 200 web publishers from its Google AdSense networks.

The online advertising platform, Google AdSense, has been criticized for placing ads for websites that falsely claimed news like the one with Donald Trump. Other web publishers were doing some imitations, posing as legitimate news websites, using URLs similar to the real news websites they were actually imitating.

Launched in 2003, Google AdSense is an online advertising platform that allows web publishers in the Google Network of content sites to serve media advertisements that are highly targeted to web publishers' content and even audience.

According to Fortune, the Mountain View-based company has already taken down around 1.7 billion Google AdSense-powered online ads for violations in 2016 only. That is pretty big compared to 780 million ads last year.

This week, the search giant announced it had reviewed some 550 sites since its policy change, permanently banning nearly 200 web publishers from its advertising network. In addition to the 200 websites, Google is also temporarily removing another 140 websites from Google AdSense.

Google Joins Facebook on War Against Fake News But declined to Provide Listing of Banned Websites

Two of the world's biggest digital information platforms are about to join forces in a never-ending war against purveyors of false published news. The two tech giants Facebook and Google have already announced plans for rolling out online tools designed to take out "fake news."

The issue on the false news or misleading information has become a major storyline in the recent US presidential campaign and election. And it is not the just in the US, the problem has already reached America's neighbor, Canada.

Reports said that Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch's campaign manager, Nick Kouvalis, has finally admitted posting false information about the Trudeau administration. The goal is to draw out left-leaning Canadian voters.

The battle against fake news sources is expected to get more intense in the next few months as Google and Facebook announced steps to purge networks of fake news websites. Both tech companies have been testing online tools aimed at helping users identify legitimate websites that publish credible news.

Despite the huge progress made online, Google still refused to share a list of the 200 fake news websites that were banned in November and December last year, according to Recode.