Digital ads are a $330-billion global business, according to estimates by the research firm eMarketer, and one that’s increasingly dominated by a few major players like Google and Facebook. Google plays a dual role in it both as one of the biggest sellers of online ads on the planet, and also the biggest tech company placing online ads on... See more

A study released Sunday by The Global Disinformation Index, a UK nonprofit that rates sites’ trustworthiness, found that 70% of roughly 1,700 disinformation sites it analyzed were getting so-called “programmatic ads” — ads placed automatically — from Google, putting brand names such as Audi and Sprint next to junk content.