On Monday, Google said that it had removed search ads that charged users searching for voting information large fees for voter registration or harvested their personal data. A Google spokeswoman said that the company’s misrepresentation policy barred such ads when searching for terms such as “register to vote,” “vote by mail,” and “where is my polling place.”
Tech Transparency Project said in a report on Monday that nearly a third of the more than 600 ads generated by its Google searches took users to sites that try to charge large fees for voter registration services, extract personal data for marketing purposes, install deceptive browser extensions, or serve other misleading ads. U.S. voters do not need to pay to register to vote.
Social media companies and online platforms, including Facebook and Twitter are under pressure to curb misinformation on their sites in the months leading up to the U.S. presidential election in November.
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