Democratic lawmaker accuses Google of failing to police deceptive ads

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) speaks to reporters during a break from a Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations joint briefing on the U.S. policy on Afghanistan, on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 2, 2022.

Blumenthal chairs the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection.

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Blumenthal wrote a letter to Pichai about the lack of enforcement of deceptive ads on the part of the search engine.

He wrote that he was concerned about the lack of due diligence that had been shown against fraud and abuse.

According to a letter from Blumenthal, an article from The Markup found that Google ran ads that looked like government websites in violation of its policy. The publication was told that the ads had been removed.

According to Blumenthal, his office recently found deceptive ads using the same words. He said that his staff found ads that were deceptive.

A passport is one of the government services that has been added to the verification process.

Blumenthal said that the continued existence of deceptive ads burdens small businesses by making it harder and more expensive for them to appear in search results.

The focus on paid ads over real answers leads to burying smaller competitors.

There are strict policies in place to protect people and advertisers alike from abuse, including rules that govern the use of trademarks in ad campaigns.

Our search ads are clearly labeled and we use extensive user testing to make sure they meet our high standards. We will work with the senator's office to provide a full response to his letter.

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There are a lot of lawsuits as antitrust scrutiny increases.