Google joins Facebook, Twitter to fight bad ads

Google has joined Facebook and Twitter, as well as AOL and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) to form an industry body called the Ads Integrity Alliance to fight against "bad ads".

In a blog post published on Thursday, Eric Davies, global public policy manager at Google, stated that it will be participating in StopBadware's initiative to create the body. He noted that the nonprofit organization has enabled many Web sites, service providers and software providers to share real-time information in order to warn users and eliminate malware such as phishing sites and maliciious downloads since its inception in 2006.

The Alliance, led by StopBadware, will develop and share definitions, industry policy recommendations and best practices. It also serves as a platform for sharing information about bad hats and share relevant trends with policymakers and law enforcement agencies, the nonprofit organization stated in a separate statement on Thursday.

"Bad ads reduce trust in the Web and online advertising. We think the Web is worth fighting for," Davies wrote. "We believe that the Ads Integrity Alliance can make a similarly important contribution to the goal of identifying and removing bad ads from all corners of the Web."

Google alone disabled more than 130 million ads and 800,000 advertisers that violated its policies on its own and partners' sites, such as ads that promote counterfeit goods and malware, he said. However, when the company or another Web site operator shuts down a bad actor, that scammer simply moves to another platform to advertise.

This is why no individual business or law enforcement agency can single-handedly eliminate these bad actors from the entire online space, Davies said. The best way to tackle common problems across a highly-interconnected Web is for the industry to "work together, build best practices and systems, and make information sharing simple", he pointed out.