The trouble with Adsense - abusive porn ads on The Star news site [NSFW]

The trouble with Adsense - abusive porn ads on The Star news site [NSFW]

The Star, an English speaking Malaysian news site relies on Adsense to fill more than nine spots per page (though adsense rules restrict it to three ad spots per page.... hmm!). And why not, with a combination of keyword sensitivity and cookies in the viewers browsers, Adsense can target the ad spots in all sorts of ways. Adsense even has other adnetworks under its umbrella, so one can accept third-party ads and get even more possible ads filling the slots. And still stuff like this happens. Or perhaps that's exactly why?
In an article about an 'erotic blogger' apologizing to National University of Singapore, a banner appeared with hard-core porn, advertising some website with the words 18 & abused. Not a banner one expects when reading the latest news. Adsense is quick to ban us for criticising Sloggi billboards but they can show hardcore porn penetration on a news site. Yeah, that makes sense.

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