In an effort to prevent damaging consequences from deepfakes in the 2024 election, Google is updating its Political content policy. Beginning in mid-November 2023, Google will require all verified election advertisers to disclose when their ads contain synthetic content that inauthentically depicts real or realistic-looking people that makes it appear as if a person is saying or doing something they didn’t say or do or that alters footage of a real event or generates a realistic portrayal of an event to depict scenes that did not actually take place. The disclosure needs to be “clear and conspicuous,” and placed in a location where it is likely to be seen by users. These new rules will only apply to advertisements and will not affect media uploaded to Google’s YouTube video platform.

Currently, Google has different requirements for political and election advertising based on region. Under Google’s U.S. political advertising policies, advertisers can be either organizations or individuals, and they must complete a verification process by providing proof of identity and eligibility to run election ads in their region. Google also restricts the ways election advertisers reach audiences by limiting the target criteria to geographic location, age, gender and contextual targeting options, including ad placements, topics, keywords, apps, pages and videos. Google provides an Ads Transparency Center that allows users to search for election ads published through Google Ads and Google Display & Video 360 by advertiser, i.e., Ron DeSantis for President, Biden Victory Fund, etc. The database includes the name of the advertiser, the approximate dollar amount spent on the advertisement and the number of times and days the advertisement was shown on Google’s platforms. As of November 1, 2023, other regions that have Ad Transparency Centers and require Election Ads verification are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, the European Union, India, Israel, New Zealand, South Africa, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Non-compliance with Google’s political content policies may result in information about the account holder and the political ads being disclosed publicly or to relevant government agencies and regulators.