Google Denies Allegations That It Has Been Stealing Money from Publishers

The supposed scheme was exposed by a “former Google employee” and involves shutting down AdSense accounts without an explanation, banning sites that were earning $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 per month.

The entire scandal started back in 2009, but the whistleblower has kept his or her mouth shut until now in order to avoid being identified.

The Next Web reports that Google claims that the description of the company’s AdSense policy enforcement process is complete fiction. “The color-coding and ‘extreme quality control’ programs the author describes don’t exist. Our teams and automated systems work around the clock to stop bad actors and protect our publishers, advertisers and users,” Google claims.

Furthermore, all publishers agree with a series of Terms and Conditions, as well as a set of policies designed to ensure the quality of the network for users, advertisers and other publishers. When violations of the rules are discovered, Google takes action, which sometimes includes disabling the publisher’s account and refunding affected advertisers.

Google works with over 2 million publishers, half of which have been clients for at least half a decade. AdSense allows these individuals to serve targeted and automatic text, image, video or interactive media ads that are administered and maintained by Google.