alt Hacker NewsWe need strict liability on this front. Google is complicit. No newspaper or equivalent publication in the days before web ads would allow ads that are down at the level of scam that seemingly make up the modus operandi of Google today (and even the ads back then that did bend the truth a bit, overpromised, or showed products that didn't actually have any legitimate use, shouldn't really have been legal back then either. They just weren't big enough of a problem to worry about).
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We need strict liability on this front. Companies behind websites that embed ads that they didn't verify (and don't control) are complicit.
The water-injection system for your carburetor that the oil companies don't want you to know about! -- paraphrase of an actual Popular Mechanics ad circa 1978
We are in a golden age of scams and fraud. I don't like the chances of Google seeing any liability for this stuff any time soon.
There were so many scam ads in magazines and newspapers back in the day. Same with all the made for tv stuff and infomercials.
The difference for the newspaper and magazine ads is you couldn't just click on it in an instant. You had to spend a lot more effort and had more chances to realize it is a scam.