Google to ban advertisers from promoting deepfake porn services

Google has released a new policy that completely bans advertisers from promoting 'sexually explicit content,' which is defined as 'text, image, audio, or video of graphic sexual acts intended to arouse.' The new rule extends this ban to services that help users create such content, whether by altering an existing image or generating a new one.

The new policy, set to take effect on May 30, prohibits advertising services that create or alter content to make it sexually explicit or contain nudity. This includes websites and apps that offer instructions on how to create deepfake porn.

Although Google already bans advertisers from promoting sexually explicit content, some apps that enable the creation of deepfake pornography have managed to bypass this restriction by presenting themselves as non-sexual in Google ads or on the Google Play Store. For instance, a face-swapping app that did not advertise itself as sexually explicit on the Google Play Store was found to be promoting explicit content on pornographic websites.

As per the company’s annual Ads Safety Report, Google removed over 1.8 billion ads for violating its policies on sexual content in 2023.