Telecom
Google 2022 Ads Safety Report: How we Suspended 6.7 million ad accounts over Safety Issues
In a bid to ensure the safety of its users, Google has released its Ad Safety Report 2022 with detailed accounts of how the telecom giant is maintaining a secure and trustworthy online space for its users.
The report released by Alejandro Borgia, Director, Product Management, Ads Safety, revealed that Google eliminated 5.2 billion ads, restricted over 4.3 million ads and suspended more than 6.7 million advertiser accounts in 2022 alone.
According to the report: “We know that people and businesses put enormous trust in Google when they use our products. That’s why we have thousands of people working around the clock to create and enforce effective advertiser and publisher policies to prevent abuse while enabling publishers and businesses of all sizes to thrive. We do this important work because a healthy ad-supported internet means everyone can access quality information.
“As the digital world continues to evolve, Google makes ongoing investments in our policies and enforcement so people can have the safest possible experience online.
“In 2022, we added or updated 29 policies for advertisers and publishers. This included expanding our financial services verification program to 10 new countries, expanding protections for teens and strengthening our elections ads policies.
“These policies help protect people. In 2022, we removed over 5.2 billion ads, restricted over
4.3 billion ads and suspended over 6.7 million advertiser accounts. This represents an increase of 2 billion more ads removed in 2022 from the previous year. We also blocked or restricted ads from serving on over 1.5 billion publisher pages and took broader site-level enforcement action on over 143,000 publisher sites.
“To enforce our policies at this scale, we rely on a combination of human reviews and automated systems powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. This helps sot through content and better detect violations across the globe.
“You can read our full 2022 Ads Safety Repot for transparency into our enforcement data. Let’s take a moment to highlight a few of the key themes we tackled in 2022”.
Protecting Users from Fraud and Scams
Fraudulent activity continues to rise. While not unique to digital advertising, these scams can cause real financial harm and we are committed to combating them on our platforms.
In 2022 we expanded our financial services certification program which requires advertisers to demonstrate that they are authorized by their local regulator to promote their products and services. This measure adds a new layer of security against fraudsters and further safeguards people from financial scams. To date, we’ve launched this program in 11 countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore. Going forward, we intend to further expand this program.
Despite our continued efforts, bad actors increasingly operate at a greater scale and with more sophistication. They use a variety of tactics to evade detection. For example, at the end of 2022 and into the new year, we faced a targeted campaign of scammers creating thousands of accounts to spread malware by impersonating popular software brands.
When we identify these coordinated threats, we urgently assess the situation and take action. In this example, we quickly identified how scammers were spreading their malware and put additional restrictions to block their ability to harm consumers. Over a one-month period, we blocked and removed tens of thousands of malicious advertisements and took action against the accounts associated with the bad ads.
Overall, in 2022, we blocked or removed 142 million advertisements for violating our misrepresentation policy and 198 million advertisements for violating our financial services policy.
Blocking and Removing Harmful Content and Combating Misinformation
In recent years, we’ve developed extensive measures to tackle misinformation and unreliable claims in our advertising ecosystem. This includes our policies against harmful health claims and demonstrably false claims that could undermine trust and participation in elections. We’ve also developed an industry-leading policy against climate change denial. In 2022, we blocked ads from running on over 300,000 publisher pages that violated these policies and blocked over 24 million policy-violating ads from serving. In addition, we blocked and removed over 51.2 million ads for inappropriate content including hate speech, violence and harmful health claims and 20.6 million ads for dangerous products or services such as weapons and explosives.
Ahead of major elections around the world, we continued our efforts to provide voters with reliable information about the election ads they saw on our platforms. As part of that work, we expanded our verification and transparency program for election ads, verifying over 5,900 new advertising accounts in the U.S. and over 2,300 in Brazil. Election ads from these advertisers included disclosures that showed who paid for the ads and also appeared in our Political Advertising on Google Transparency Repot. We’ve also blocked over 2.6 million election ads that came from advertisers who had not completed our required verification process.
Responding to the War in Ukraine
Following the stat of the war in Ukraine, we acted quickly to prohibit ads that exploit, dismiss or condone the war. This is in addition to our longstanding policies prohibiting content that incites violence or denies the occurrence of tragic events to run as ads or monetize using our services.
We also paused the majority of our commercial activities in Russia across our products. We paused ads from showing in Russia along with ads from Russian-based advertisers and paused monetization of Russian state-funded media across our platforms.
Throughout 2022, we remained vigilant enforcing these policies and blocked more than 17 million ads related to the war in Ukraine under our sensitive event policy. Separately, we removed ads from more than 275 state-funded media sites across our platforms.
Prioritizing Child Safety
When it comes to designing products and creating policies, one of our top priorities is to ensure the safety of kids and teens around the world. That’s why we’ve long blocked ads targeting and personalization for young kids. We’ve also filtered mature ad categories such as sexually explicit content and ads for gambling, alcohol and pharmaceutical drugs. And, in 2021, we announced that we would expand these protections to all users under the age of
18 globally. This includes blocking ad targeting based on age, gender or interests and preventing additional age-sensitive ad categories from serving to teens. We began rolling out these changes in Europe and completed that process globally last year. We also now prohibit ads promoting dating apps, contests and sweepstakes, as well as weight loss products to people under 18.
Empowering Users with More Information and Control
In addition to our policies and enforcement, we’re committed to leading the industry in giving users more information about the ads they see and putting them in control of their ads experience.
In October, we launched My Ads Center which helps people control the kinds of ads they see across Google on Search, YouTube and Discover. It also allows them to limit ads from sensitive categories and learn more about the information used to personalize their ad experience. In the first three months after launch, we’ve seen more than 70 million visits to My Ad Center globally, with people adjusting their ad preferences on more than 20% of those visits.
We’ve also invested significantly in giving helpful information to users about our advertisers. In 2020, we began verifying advertiser identity and today we verify them in more than 240 countries and regions. In 2021, we launched advertiser pages in the United States which shows basic information about a verified advertiser like where they are located, what type of business they provide and other advertisements they’ve recently run. In 2022, we expanded this program globally.
Today I’m pleased to announce we are launching a new transparency tool, the Ads Transparency Center, a searchable repository of verified advertisers across all of our platforms, including Search, Display, and YouTube, that lets people search for a particular advertiser and view the advertiser page.
Looking Ahead to 2023
Providing a safe and trustworthy ads experience for users is a critical contribution to Google’s mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. As 2023 continues, we will stay diligent in our efforts to combat abuse across our platforms while helping advertisers and publishers grow their businesses.
Lebara Nigeria has launched the Agent Registration Portal (ARP), a new digital onboarding platform designed to accelerate the expansion of its retail and point-of-sale (POS) network nationwide.
Through the Agent Registration Portal, Lebara aims to create awareness, build trust and credibility within the retail channel, create opportunities for Nigerians to register and become Lebara partners, and position the brand as a modern, digitally driven, and opportunity – focused telecom operator.
With the introduction of the Agent Registration Portal, alongside its earlier customer-focused digital tools, Lebara Nigeria is designed to empower SMEs, independent distributors, SIM sellers, and retailers nationwide by removing traditional barriers to entry and enabling compliant, digital-first onboarding at scale.
Also, positioning itself as a digitally driven telecom entrant, focused on speed, compliance, and nationwide reach as it prepares for full-scale operations across the country.
The rollout comes as part of a national onboarding campaign running from January to March, 2026, targeting both low-scale retail agents and high-scale distributors.
Through the portal, Lebara aims to rapidly grow its digital and physical presence across Nigeria while ensuring all partners meet required compliance and verification standards
The Agent Registration Portal is accessible via the Lebara Nigeria website and allows prospective agents and distributors to complete the entire onboarding process online.
Once approved, partner locations are activated as Lebara POS outlets, trained and authorized to sell Lebara starter packs, data bundles, vouchers and other Lebara Nigeria products and services.
The launch builds on Lebara Nigeria’s earlier digital initiatives ahead of its full market entry.
Prior to the Agent Registration Portal rollout, the company introduced a Number Registration Portal, enabling prospective customers to select and reserve preferred phone numbers before the network goes live.
The service allows users to secure personalised numbers such as memorable dates, culturally significant digits, or easy-to-recall patterns through a simple online process, giving customers early control over their mobile identity.
The Agent Registration Portal onboarding process follows a structured flow from account creation and document upload to compliance checks, verification, approval, and activation. Applicants are required to submit details such as National Identification Number (NIN), valid government-issued ID, Tax Identification Number (TIN), and address information. Where all documentation is complete, onboarding can be completed within 30 minutes, after which applicants receive email confirmation and next steps.
Commenting on the launch, Mary O. Akin-Adesokan, Chief Operating Officer of Lebara Nigeria, said the portal is central to the company’s operational and growth strategy in the country.
“The Agent Registration Portal is a key part of our strategy to scale Lebara’s retail presence nationwide. It allows us to onboard partners faster, ensure full compliance, and provide both small retailers and large distributors with a transparent and reliable way to do business with Lebara.
“Together with our earlier Number Reservation Portal, it demonstrates our commitment to using digital innovation to simplify access, empower partners, and enhance the overall telecom experience,” she said.
MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola has declared that the era of outsiders telling Africa’s story is over, positioning the continent as a global powerhouse of authors, architects, and innovators.
MTN Nigeria
Toriola made the remarks while accepting the ‘CEO of the Year’ award at the 2025 Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) Recognition Ceremony in Lagos.
“For decades, stories about Africa were told about us, but rarely by us,” he said, rejecting outdated narratives of conflict and need. “We are no longer the subjects of the story; we are the authors. Africa’s time is now.”
He spotlighted African talent now leading global organisations, alongside Afrobeats and art reshaping world culture, drawing the Diaspora home with investments, not just emotions.
Toriola anchored his vision in MTN Nigeria’s journey, recalling a time when Nigeria’s 120 million people shared fewer than 500,000 telephone lines. “When MTN entered in 2001, analysts said Nigerians were too poor for mobile phones. They were wrong. They underestimated the Nigerian spirit,” he said.
From that first call in May 2001, MTN has connected over 84 million subscribers, building Nigeria’s “digital nervous system.”
He described Nigeria as uniquely investable due to its resilience and scalability, dedicating the award to MTN’s “real heroes”—engineers scaling masts and frontline customer service staff.
As MTN marks 25 years in 2026, Toriola pledged: “We are going nowhere. We are rooted in the soil of Nigeria and Africa.” He urged global elites to become the continent’s “Most Impactful Builders.”
Modern messengers, such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal and others, are often used for illicit purposes. Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence has conducted an in-depth monitoring of over 800 blocked cybercriminal Telegram channels between 2021 and 2024.
While a range of illegal activities continues to be hosted on the platform, its environment has become noticeably more challenging for sustained underground operations.
Telegram’s bot framework and other built-in features make for a low-effort ecosystem for the underworld.
A single bot can simultaneously manage queries, process cryptocurrency payments, and instantly deliver stolen bank cards, info-stealer logs, phishing kits, or DDoS attacks to hundreds of buyers per day, often without operator involvement.
Unlimited, non-expiring file storage eliminates the need for external hosting when distributing multi-gigabyte database dumps or stolen corporate documents. This frictionless automation naturally favours high-volume, low-price, low-skill offerings, such as leaked bank cards or other data, hosting malware, etc.
High-value, trust-dependent deals (for instance, zero-day vulnerability information) still remain on reputation-gated dark-web forums.
Kaspersky researchers found two clear trends related to illegal activities on Telegram. The average lifespan of shadow channels has increased, with the proportion of channels surviving over nine months more than tripling in 2023-2024 compared to 2021–2022. At the same time, Telegram’s blocking activity has risen significantly.
Monthly takedown figures recorded since October 2024 – even at their lowest – are comparable to the peak levels seen throughout 2023, and the overall pace continued to accelerate in 2025. This impedes malicious activities.
Other disadvantages of Telegram for cybercriminals include the lack of default end-to-end (E2E) encryption for chats, the inability to use their own servers for communication (due to the messenger’s centralised infrastructure), and closed server-side code, which makes it impossible to verify its functionality.
As a result, several established underground communities, including the nearly 9,000-member BFRepo group and the Angel Drainer malware-as-a-service operation, have already begun shifting primary activity to other platforms or proprietary messengers, citing repeated disruptions of their activities on Telegram.
“Fraudsters find Telegram a convenient tool for many malicious activities, but the risk-reward balance is clearly shifting. Channels are managing to stay online longer than a couple of years ago, yet the dramatically higher volume of blocks means operators can no longer count on long-term stability.
“When a storefront or service disappears overnight – and sometimes reappears only to be removed again weeks later – building a reliable business becomes much harder. We’re starting to see the early stages of migration as a direct consequence,” comments Vladislav Belousov, Digital Footprint Analyst at Kaspersky.
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