I spent a good part of this year investigating Google's ad business. Today we published a story about trying to crack open its black box ad network.
Unlike its competitors, Google conceals nearly all publishers it works with and where billions of ad dollars flow. We found that Google's vast ad network contains manga piracy, porn, fraud and disinformation.
Give it a read: https://www.propublica.org/article/google-display-ads-piracy-porn-fraud
@craigsilverman would love to have you as a guest on https://techtonic.fm sometime in the new year!
@markhurst sounds great! Can you send a request to craig.silverman@propublica.org? That way I can ask for the ok.
@craigsilverman
Great work on this investigation. Looking forward to more following the money behind disinfo.
@craigsilverman Good article, Craig. I read it about an hour ago and tooted a link to it already. Keep up the good work!
@craigsilverman @ProPublica first two is based, last two is cringe
@craigsilverman Good work!
@craigsilverman This was a dope read! Thanks for your hard work.
@craigsilverman NOT MANGA PIRACY!!!
@craigsilverman good work, well done!
@craigsilverman great job. The more awareness is made for the issues inside adtech the better chance for it to improve.
@craigsilverman thank you for your brilliant endeavor!
Thank you for shedding light on this. In my work I also noticed the ongoing problem of Google ads being used to hawk illegal services. In the ddos-for-hire space, Google still requires individual takedown and refuses to ban the entire category of activity, even though it's categorically illegal.
The below article from 2018 is STILL relevant.
https://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2018/08/28/google-doesnt-seem-to-believe-booters-are-illegal/
@craigsilverman what happened to “don’t be evil”?
@craigsilverman
Thank you.
I have passed this on to the trustees of a charity I am part of.
@craigsilverman
Advertisers choose where to advertise and can opt out of the Google Display Network.
Ultimately it’s their business decision as to where their advertising budget goes.
If Google’s display network is opaque is it not because advertisers want it that way ?
@craigsilverman There is nothing wrong with piracy and porn
@craigsilverman And they know it, which is the main reason for keeping this information from being made public.