Google is fighting Bad Ads. In a report ” How we fought bad ads, sites and scammers in 2016,” Google takes credit in a proof-of-performance white paper for keeping the internet open and safe. 

“Ads play a key role in ensuring you have access to accurate, quality information online, but bad ads can ruin the online experience for everyone,” the report stated.

Here are the highlights:

• Took down 1.7 billion ads that violated Google’s ad policies
• Outlawed and disabled 5 million payday loan ads
• Disabled 68 million ad for healthcare violations
• Took down 80 million bad ads for deceiving, misleading and shocking users
• Detected and disabled 23,000 self-clicking ads
• Suspended 6,000 sites and 6,000 accounts for attempting to advertise counterfeit goods

Trying to keep the web free and open is not easy. The large numbers of ads provides plenty of proof that it requires sophisticated technology to defeat the scammers. But I’d bet on Google—it has everything to gain and a lot to lose with widespread infiltration of fake advertising.