Google, Facebook, Twitter pledge to clear up 'bad ads'
Posted on Jun 14, 2012 by equimedia
Facebook, Google, Twitter and AOL are among the companies that have joined allegiances to clear out bad advertising practices.
Operating under the banner of the Ads Integrity Alliance, the collective aim is to cut down on user scams, sales of counterfeit goods and malware delivery.
Many of the organisations involved have already been taking action to cut down on bad ads, with 130 million ads and 800,000 advertisers reprimanded by Google in 2011 alone.
The campaign also lists the Interactive Advertising Bureau as a charter member and is being promoted by StopBadware.
"No individual business or law enforcement agency can single-handedly eliminate these bad actors from the entire web," explained Google global public policy manager Eric Davis. "As StopBadware has shown, the best way to tackle common problems across a highly interconnected web, and to move the whole web forward, is for the industry to work together."
The Alliance will work to develop shared definitions and industry policy recommendations.
There will also be a shared platform for listing information about known bad actors in the industry.
In addition to sharing information with each other, organisations also intend to make trends available to law enforcement agencies and other policymakers.
StopBadware already carries out this role to a certain extent, listing websites identified by partners as containing malware or bad software.
Earlier this month, StopBadware's Maxim Weinstein underlined the need for a coordinated approach to protect the integrity of the internet from criminals.
"We must begin to create a more secure and defensible foundation for cyberspace now in order to protect the two billion current users and the next billion users expected online by 2015," he said, adding that any action should involve international governments and industry players to protect the shared IT ecosystem.
