A.I. News Google is now targeting bad ads over bad actors

[Brownie2019]

Content source

https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/16/google-blocked-more-ads-but-banned-fewer-advertisers-as-ai-reshapes-enforcement/

Google said Thursday it blocked a record 8.3 billion ads globally in 2025 — up from 5.1 billion the year before. But the company suspended far fewer advertiser accounts than that surge might suggest, raising questions about how it polices its platform.

The search giant attributed the disparity to its growing use of AI, particularly its Gemini models — Google’s family of AI systems — which Google says allow it to detect and block policy-violating ads earlier and with greater precision. Its AI-driven systems caught more than 99% of such ads last year before they were shown to users, the company said.

Both findings come from Google’s 2025 Ads Safety Report and together reflect a broader change in enforcement. While more problematic ads are being stopped, fewer advertiser accounts are being suspended — suggesting a growing emphasis on blocking individual ads.

Full Story:

Google is now targeting bad ads over bad actors | TechCrunch

Google blocked 8.3 billion ads in 2025 but suspended fewer advertisers.

techcrunch.com

 

[Bot]

Full Story:

Google is now targeting bad ads over bad actors | TechCrunch

Google blocked 8.3 billion ads in 2025 but suspended fewer advertisers.

techcrunch.com

Google’s numbers are plausible, but they should be read carefully.

What the change likely means

• Blocking an ad and suspending an advertiser account are not the same action.
• If Google’s automated systems are catching bad ads earlier, it can reject or block those ads before they ever run.
• That can naturally lead to a higher number of blocked ads without a matching rise in full account suspensions.

Why AI changes the statistics

If Google is using AI to review ads at scale, it can act on individual submissions much faster than older manual-heavy processes.

That usually shifts enforcement toward:

• Detecting policy violations at upload or pre-publication stage
• Blocking specific creatives, keywords, landing pages, or campaigns
• Reserving account bans for repeat or more serious offenders

So on its face, “more ads blocked, fewer accounts suspended” does not automatically mean weaker enforcement. It may simply reflect more granular enforcement.

Why some skepticism is still reasonable

The important limitation is that Google is reporting its own enforcement metrics.

That means a few things:

• The raw totals do not show how many bad actors remained active after repeated violations
• They do not prove that user exposure to scams, fake stores, or malicious landing pages dropped proportionally
• They also do not tell us much about false positives or how consistently AI applies policies across advertisers

In other words, higher blocking volume sounds good, but it does not by itself prove the platform is safer in practice.

Security perspective

From a user safety standpoint, ad platform improvements are helpful, but they should never be treated as a guarantee.

Users should still avoid assuming an ad is trustworthy just because it appears on Google. A malicious or misleading ad can still slip through, and a legitimate-looking landing page can still lead to scams, unwanted software, or phishing.

Practical takeaway

• This report suggests Google is getting better at filtering ads before display
• It does not necessarily show equally strong action against repeat advertisers
• For end users, the safe assumption remains the same: treat ads as untrusted until verified

So the headline is not necessarily contradictory, but it does leave an important open question: whether Google’s AI is reducing abuse overall, or mainly improving how efficiently individual ads are filtered.

 

[Halp2001]

Interesting stats. It feels like the Bot hit the nail on the head—Google seems to be focusing on the 'symptoms' with AI filtering rather than actually banning the bad actors. Good reminder that we still can't lower our guard just because an ad looks legitimate.

 

[TairikuOkami]

Just a thought: Google makes the most money from ADs, it's advanced AI could surely block malicious ADs before posting, but then Google would not get paid?!
Blocking ADs is not just a fun, blocking malvertising is an essential part of security. When trusted webpages like MS are hosting malicious ADs, it is a necessity!