HUNT VALLEY, Maryland (TND) — Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is editing Google ads in a way that makes it appear as though news publishers are partisan supporters of her White House bid, Axios reported Tuesday. News of the changes comes as the Silicon Valley giant faces legal challenges after a judge ruled the company has a monopoly on its search function.
Some of Harris’ ads include links to real articles from news outlets like Reuters, The Guardian and others with altered headlines and supporting text that make it appear as though the articles support the Democratic presidential candidate. Axios found that nearly a dozen media outlets have been used in a similar way since early August.
An example of this is an ad running alongside a Guardian article with the headline: “Vice President Harris fights abortion bans – Harris defends reproductive freedom.” Below that is text telling readers that Harris is a “champion of reproductive freedom.”
The campaign is buying search ads with news links to give users more information about the vice president, Axios reports, citing a source familiar with the campaign’s ad team. Harris became the presumptive nominee after President Joe Biden withdrew his re-election bid following a weak debate performance in June.
Google’s Ad Transparency tool shows that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s team is not running similar ads, even though such ad buying and editing has become common practice in past political campaigns.
A technical error in Google’s ad library made it appear that some ads did not contain the required disclosures, Axios reported, citing a Google representative. “Candidates must go through an identity verification process, and we prominently display disclosures in the ads that clearly show who paid for the ad,” the spokesperson said.
Google argues that its disclosures are sufficient to prevent voters from being misled.
A judge had previously ruled last week that the technology company had an illegal monopoly because, over several years, it had created a digital environment through various exclusive contracts with other software giants that enabled Google to squeeze competitors out of the search industry.
The Justice Department is considering several options for redress, including breaking up the company. Other options would include forcing Google to share data with competitors or paying large fines, according to Bloomberg. Breaking it up would be an extraordinary step, especially given that the U.S. government tried and failed to do the same thing with Microsoft 20 years ago.
Google has appealed the judge’s ruling, but analysts believe the company will not emerge unscathed in the long run. Google’s lawyers will effectively put the brakes on past business practices in order to secure a favorable outcome in court.
Complaints about Google creating so-called dark patterns in search have been dogged by the company for years.
For example, in 2019, The Verge reported on a new look for Google search results on desktop, a change that seemed to blur the line between a simple search result for information and an ad. The change resulted in ads and search results being distinguished only by a small black “ad” icon next to the ad.
The “ad” icon is similar to the favicons that appear next to search results. The change means that “a site’s branding can take center stage,” Google wrote in a blog post announcing the change.
Data Digiday collected at the time showed that the changes resulted in people clicking on more ads.
Before the change in late 2019, Google’s ads were distinct from search queries and were set off by large, orange boxes. By 2013, the search engine gave ads a completely different place and continued to use unique color-coded boxes afterward.
