Google was keen on 'draining the swamp' in 2013

But ad networks still power 'fake news'

[tangor]

Faced with a report showing Google’s advertising network allowed big brands' ad money to be spent funding criminal operations, Google welcomed initiatives to “drain the swamp” in 2013 - three and a half years ago.

But guess what? The swamp’s still here. And it's feeding a different sort of creature now.

Today the Wall Street Journal reports how “fake news” clickbait sites are richly rewarded by Google’s advertising network. Of course they are. That’s why they do it. Buzzfeed (oh, the irony) traced hundreds of clickbait domains to one operation run out of a provincial town in Macedonia.

“Well-known brands’ appearance on fake-news sites reflects the complexity [our emphasis] of online advertising, where computers can place a different ad each time a user clicks on a webpage. Multiple middlemen are often involved, leaving both publishers and advertisers uncertain about which ads will appear where.”

[theregister.co.uk...]

All the words above, including Subject and comment line, are from the article, I'm just the messenger. :)

[toidi]

The big brands would not have their ads on a fake news article, right?

[moTi]

the few users who actually ever click on ads are the ones who bring in your adsense money. who are these clickers? well, sad to say, but.. mostly rather a bit naive or even stupid people. people who are easily manipulated by advertising. people, who can't distinguish between ads and content. people who can't distinguish facts from fiction.

as we know by now, spreading lies through the internet draws in a multiple of the attendance than publishing honest, but predictable and lame news. getting a huge amount of visitors who fall for fake news makes the best audience for monetizing a website. so these massive fake news portals are predestined for adsense.

let's face it: this sort of advertising system is completely broken. it's no different than the typical "made for adsense" trash - the wrong publishers are getting rewarded.