Google has reportedly removed voting scam ads that showed up in past elections, according a new report from the Tech Transparency Project.
TTP, a research initiative of the watchdog organization Campaign for Accountability, recently tested numerous voting-related terms in Google’s search engine to determine whether those inquiries led users to scam ads. The top phrases included “how to vote,” “how to register to vote,” “early voting,” and “when is voting.”
In the 2020 and 2022 elections, searches for the same terms yielded scam ads, including ones that charged people fraudulent fees to register to vote or served up “a muddle of useless information,” according to the report. Other ads sent users to websites that harvested their data for marketing and installed “browser hijackers” that forced users to visit ad-filled sites.
When TTP conducted its testing from Oct. 1 to 10, 2024, its researchers found none of the scam ads that had previously surfaced. Most of the ads promoted …