Ahead of general elections in India, Google has mandated that all advertisers who wish to run election ads on Google platforms will have to undergo an identity verification process and disclose who is funding the advertisements. 

“We require all advertisers who wish to run election ads on our platforms to undergo an identity verification process, provide a pre-certificate issued by the ECI or anyone authorized by the ECI for each election ad they want to run where necessary and have in-ad disclosures that clearly show who paid for the ad,” Google said in its India Blog on Tuesday, calling it an “ongoing transparency on Election Ads”. 

The company also announced that it will compile all election ads in a searchable hub that provides insights on who the advertisers are, where they are located and how much is spent on the ads in order to “provide greater transparency”. 

“We have long-standing ads policies that prohibit ads from promoting demonstrably false claims that could undermine trust or participation in elections”, the tech giant said. 

Notably, Google (even Meta, X and other social media firms as well) has long been accused of running fake news and unverified advertisements often promoted by rivals. Recently, the tech giant had to remove a large number of advertisements from its platforms published on behalf of India’s prominent political outfit. 

“Protecting the integrity of elections also means keeping our products and services safe from abuse. Across Google, we have long-standing policies to keep our products and platforms safe. Our policies are enforced consistently and apply to all users, regardless of content type,” Google said in the blog. 

Countering misinformation

Ahead of the General Election, Google has also extended support to Shakti, a consortium of news publishers and fact checkers in India, to aid the early detection of online misinformation, including deepfakes, and to create a common repository that news publishers can use to tackle the challenges of misinformation at scale. 

The project will also provide news organizations and fact-checkers essential training in advanced fact-checking methodologies, deepfake detection, and the latest Google tools like the Fact Check Explorer, to streamline verification processes, the blog mentioned. 

Cautious approach on AI content, Gemini

Google’s ads policies already prohibit the use of manipulated media to mislead people, like deepfakes or doctored content. Yet, the firm has begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses. 

“We take our responsibility for providing high-quality information for these types of queries seriously, and are continuously working to improve our protections….. Our double-check feature in Gemini evaluates whether there is content across the web to substantiate its response,” the Blog states. 

It also promised that every image generated through Google products has embedded watermarking with Google DeepMind’s SynthID.

Notably, social media platforms are often accused of allowing misleading political advertisements, including those which malign rivals with manipulated media. Recently, Google had to remove a large number of advertisements from its platforms published on behalf of a prominent political outfit.

Alongside other leading tech companies, Google also seeks to deploy technology countering harmful AI-generated content meant to deceive voters, the blog said. 

Content labels on YouTube

Soon, YouTube will begin to require creators to disclose when they’ve created realistic altered or synthetic content, and will display a label that indicates for people when they’re watching this content.

We want to help provide viewers as much context as possible about the content they’re watching. We’ve already started displaying labels for content created with YouTube generative AI features, like Dream Screen, the company said.