"In total, we blocked over 99 million Covid-related ads from serving throughout the year, including those for miracle cures, N95 masks due to supply shortages, and most recently, fake vaccine doses", Scott Spencer, Google's vice president of ad privacy and safety, posted in the company blog.

In 2020, Google added and updated over 40 policies for advertisers in a bid to stop the spread of ad scams in its ecosystem. In total, the company has reported over 3.1 billion "bad ad" takedowns, additional 6.4 billion ads were restricted following national law requirements.

"Additionally, as claims and conspiracies about the coronavirus’s origin and spread were circulated online, we launched a new policy to prohibit both ads and monetised content about COVID-19 or other global health emergencies that contradict scientific consensus", Spencer stated.

The release of the annual Ads Safety Report is part of the global tech giant's efforts to prevent malicious use of its ads platform and boost the transparency of how it reacts to policy violations across its ecosystems.