Investigation Examines Google's 'Support' of Terrorists
At this week's Search Engine Strategies Conference in Chicago, Jim Hedger from Webmaster Radio detailedhow Google is serving AdWords ads to terrorist sites within the company's social networking site Orkut. Some think it's malicious. Others think Google can't possibly monitor every single site in the world for content. Hedger also discussed how money earned from click fraud on these sites is "supporting" terrorism. You decide. Is there anything Google can or should do to minimize this?
Comments
The Search Engine Journal reports that terrorists linked with Al Qaeda and Hezbollah are benefiting from Google Adsense ads and are stealing from Google advertisers by using click fraud programs which generate revenue for their operations. The new report claims that insurgent based networks use robot clickers called ‘clickbots’ which are automated programs that click on Gogle ads and change IP address over and over again. According to the report, this is how the Adsense hustle for terrorists works;
1. Groups set up blogs and sites that serve Google AdSense ads
2. Commit click fraud on those sites
3. Collect revenue from Google
4. Donate revenue to “charities” that funnel funds to terror groups