Google mandates advertisers to undergo identity verification process to run election ads

Google has unveiled new initiatives on its blog to bolster support for the general elections in India, aiming to furnish high-quality information and assist individuals in navigating AI-generated content.

In anticipation of the elections, the tech giant is partnering with the Election Commission of India (ECI) to facilitate users in finding essential voting details through Google Search, including instructions on registration and voting procedures, available in both English and Hindi.

Additionally, Google has introduced information panels to disclose funding sources for publishers receiving public or government funding. Moreover, topical context information panels have been introduced for subjects susceptible to misinformation.

Last year, the company launched new disclosure requirements for election ads containing synthetic content. This year, Google has mandated all advertisers who wish to run election ads on the platforms to undergo an identity verification process, providing a pre-certificate which is issued by the ECI or anyone authorised by the poll panel for each election ad they want to run where necessary and have in-ad disclosures that clearly show who paid for the ad.

The company remarked that all election ads are in a searchable hub that provides insights on who the advertisers are, where they are located and how much is spent on the ads.

Apart from the above, Google News Initiative Training Network and the Fact Check Explorer tool aim to enable newsrooms and journalists to deliver reliable, fact-checked updates to debunk misinformation. The company has also launched initiatives such as FactShala, Sach Ke Saathi and YouTube’s Hit Pause to combat misinformation.

It has also extended support to Shakti, India Election Fact-Checking Collective, a consortium of news publishers and fact-checkers in the country.

Talking about its AI venture Gemini, the company said, “ We have begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses.”

Google has disclosed that, in the near future, YouTube will begin to require creators to disclose when they have created realistic altered or synthetic content and will display a label that indicates to people when they peruse this content.

Google has also launched digital watermarking (Google DeepMind’s SynthID), credibility checks on images (About this Image on Search), double check feature on Gemini, and a collaboration with C2PA coalition and standard to help provide more transparency and context for people on AI-generated content.

Google’s ‘The ‘Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections’ is a set of commitments to deploy technology countering harmful AI-generated content meant to deceive voters.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com