Alphabet and Facebook have recently announced steps to prevent “fake news” sites making more profit. Questions have been raised after some large international brands have advertised on sites publishing made-up news stories in order to increase ad revenue. Google has said that it will stop advertising on “deceptive or misrepresentative” pages, and that it has “demanded increased human review” from the websites themselves. Adam Berke, president of AdRoll Inc. who help clients place ads online, says that the issue lies in the disconnection between publishers and the sites themselves due to the amount of 'middle men'. Berke added that most of the time “we don't even get passed the name of the publisher”. However, Dan Greenberg from the advertising firm Sharethrough Inc. stressed the urgency to stop the practice, saying that it was no longer acceptable for a company to say “they don't know”.Â
