Google believes that marking such advertisements as “sponsored” is enough to keep voters from being misled
US Vice President Kamala Harris has been using Google search advertisements that link to real news articles from legitimate sources, but with the headlines and descriptions altered to paint the Democratic presidential candidate in a more favorable way, according to an Axios report.
The Harris campaign has been running such ads linking to stories by “nearly a dozen” news outlets, including CNN, AP, CBS, NPR, The Guardian, USA Today and others since at least August 3, Axios reported on Tuesday.
The ads apparently mimic real news results “closely enough” that they can potentially mislead users. Axios wrote that such ads are a “common practice,” but acknowledged that according to Google’s ad transparency center, Harris’ rival Donald Trump is not running these types of misleading ads.
The Harris campaign has been editing news headlines and descriptions within Google search ads that make it appear as if the Guardian, Reuters, CBS News and other major publishers are on her side, @sarafischer writes. https://t.co/BaVTz8Hyrf
— Sophia Cai (@SophiaCai99) August 13, 2024
Some of the outlets claimed they were blindsided and “unaware” that their brands were being featured this way, according to Axios. A spokesperson for The Guardian said the company will be “reaching out to Google for more information about this practice.”
Meanwhile, Google has insisted that the practice does not violate its rules, claiming that since the ads are labeled as “sponsored,” they are “easily distinguishable” from legitimate search results.
However, the tech giant admitted that due to an alleged “technical glitch” in Google’s Ad Library, some of the ads “appeared” to lack the necessary disclosures, Axios wrote. A Google spokesperson promised to investigate the glitch, insisting that the company has for years “provided additional levels of transparency for election ads specifically.”
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