Google to Require All Advertisers to Identify Themselves--Update
April 23 2020 - 5:03PM
Dow Jones News
By Patience Haggin
Google said it would require all advertisers to verify their
identities to purchase ads through the company's ad-buying
software, a move that would help it crack down on ads purveying
misinformation or products related to the coronavirus.
Ads have proliferated online promoting fake vaccines and other
misleading products. Google's policy will apply to ads purchased
through its ad-buying software Display & Video 360 on Google
searches, Google-owned YouTube and third-party websites around the
world.
The policy was in the works for several months before the
outbreak of the novel coronavirus and the crisis didn't accelerate
the process, a Google spokeswoman said.
Google's move is intended to "help support the health of the
digital advertising ecosystem by detecting bad actors and limiting
their attempts to misrepresent themselves," wrote John Canfield,
Google's director of product management for ads integrity, in a
blog post.
Alphabet Inc.'s Google is the world's largest seller of digital
advertising. Its ad businesses, including YouTube, search and
third-party website ads, brought in nearly $135 billion last
year.
Google introduced its verification process for advertisers
purchasing political ads in 2018. The company's political ad
policing has faced criticism for relying on ad buyers to
self-designate their ads as political. Google says it has systems
to detect political ads from buyers who don't classify them
properly.
Extending the verification requirement to all ad buyers will
help the company crack down on actors who may be purchasing ads
containing political content without registering them as such.
The Google spokeswoman said that further regulating political
ads wasn't part of the motivation for the policy announced
Thursday.
Facebook Inc., the world's second-largest seller of digital ads,
requires political advertisers to verify their personal and
organizational identities, but it doesn't require commercial
advertisers to do so. Facebook declined to comment.
To complete Google's verification process, each advertiser must
provide legal documentation, such as an Internal Revenue Service
tax document showing the organization's name, address and employer
identification number. An individual from the organization must
present a government-issued photo ID to verify his or her
identity.
Existing advertisers will be notified in phases of the
requirement and will have 30 days to complete the verification
process once notified, or see their accounts suspended. The process
will take a few years to complete, Google said.
Write to Patience Haggin at patience.haggin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 23, 2020 16:48 ET (20:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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