REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
Google will ban fake news sites from using its advertising software, The Wall Street Journal reports. The move will prohibit the placement of Google’s AdSense ads “on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher’s content, or the primary purpose,” the company told the Journal. Websites that published deliberately false news items saw a surge in traffic, influence, and cash this election season, after social-media users rushed to share too-good-to-be-true articles. Technology companies, particularly Facebook, have come under fire for failing to curb the flow of fake news. Facebook’s trending topics, which repeatedly promoted misinformation about the 2016 election, spurred a massive backlash after it was accused of influencing the race in Donald Trump’s favor. AdSense is the most popular revenue source for fake-news publishers, who now stand to lose some of their cash flow.