Google will soon ban websites that write fake news stories from using their advertising network.
As critics assert Facebook’s news feed prominently features news stories with false information, Google will begin banning websites from using Adsense on their website
Google announced that its advertising network will be soon closed to websites that promote fake news. This new policy could shut down revenue streams for hundreds publications that rely on promoting false news stories. The decision comes after Facebook came under fire for not preventing fake news surrounding the 2016 US Presidential election.
In a statement given to Reuters, a Google spokesperson said, “Moving forward, we will restrict ad serving on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher’s content, or the primary purpose of the web property.”
Recently, the topic of fake news has become a national issue but, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has downplayed the controversy. Zuckerberg called the idea”crazy”. However, a high ranking source close to Gizmodo, reported that Facebook developed a solution to address false news articles from going viral on their platform. But, were unwilling to implement it in fear of “upsetting conservatives.”
It is believed that viral fake news stories helped influence the outcome of the presidential election that led to Donald Trump’s victory. According to the The New York Times, Facebook employees were reportedly “aware” of the social network’s influence on the election and were unwilling to make any serious changes.
“The Trending Topics episode paralyzed Facebook’s willingness to make any serious changes to its products that might compromise the perception of its objectivity,” Facebook employees told The New York Times.
While, Facebook’s CEO is dealing with the controversy of fake news, Google was forced to address a fake news story that made it to the top of Google search results. Recently, when users searched for “who won the popular vote,” a news website falsely reported that President-elect Donald Trump had won. When in fact, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in the U.S. election.
A report analyzing fake news stories found that conservative media groups published misleading information 38 percent of the time in comparison to liberal media’s 20 percent.