Google to update AdMob & AdSense Program Policies

Google will introduce a new Sensitive Events policy into the AdMob & AdSense Program Policies in February.

Why we care. Non-compliance with policies may result in the disabling of ads serving on your site as well as the deactivation of your AdSense account.

While site-level action is possible for sites for which the policy violation is pervasive, the initial action taken would be to remove violative content at a page level.

What is a Sensitive Event? A Sensitive Event is an unforeseen situation that poses a significant risk to Google’s ability to:

• Provide high-quality, relevant and accurate information.
• Reduce inappropriate content in key and monetized features.

Examples of Sensitive Events include events with significant social, cultural, or political impact, such as:

• Civil emergencies.
• Natural disasters.
• Public health emergencies.
• Terrorism and related activities.
• Conflict.
• Mass acts of violence.

Banned content. Google published a non-exhaustive list explaining the type of material it prohibits during Special Events:

• Products or services that exploit, dismiss, or condone the Sensitive Event, including price gouging or artificially inflating prices that prohibits/restricts access to vital supplies; sale of products or services which may be insufficient for the demand during a sensitive event.
• The use of keywords related to a sensitive event to attempt to drive additional traffic.
• Claims that victims of a sensitive event were responsible for their own tragedy or similar instances of victim blaming; claims that victims of a sensitive event are not deserving of remedy or support; claims that victims from certain countries were responsible or deserving of a global public health crisis.

What’s changing? Moving forward, Google will take actions to prevent monetization of the sensitive event topic by not allowing advertisers to run ads that may exploit it. This policy is to prevent the exploitation of emergencies and should not impact the documentation of these emergencies as events for news reporting purposes.

Deep dive. Read the AdMob & AdSense Program Policies in full for more information.