Google Issues New Policy Guidelines on AdSense Demonetization

It appears that Google may be pulling back on its demonetization operations when it comes to Google AdSense.

Google sent out this letter to Google publishers (including me)

Your Publisher ID:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Policy Update Important AdSense policy update coming soon Dear AdSense Publisher, We're writing to let you know about a change to Google's publisher policies for all of our publisher products that will affect your AdSense account. In September 2019, we’re launching changes to some of our content policies across our publisher products (AdSense, AdMob, and Ad Manager). While there’s no action for you to take today since this won’t affect any publishers right now, be sure that you read through this email to familiarize yourself with what’s coming next month. Why we’re making these changes: One of the top requests we hear from publishers is that they want us to simplify and streamline our policies. We know that many of you use several of our publisher products and we want to bring you a clear and easy way to understand how to interact with our policies and how they affect you, no matter which products you use. Here’s what you can expect: • Google Publisher Policies, which outline the types of content we won’t monetize through any of our publisher products. These include: Illegal Content, Child Sexual Abuse Material & Pedophilia, Sexually Explicit Content, Adult Themes in Family Content, Intellectual Property Abuse, Endangered or Threatened Species, Dangerous or Derogatory Content, Enabling Dishonest Behavior, Misrepresentative Content, Malicious or Unwanted Software, and Mail Order Brides. • Google Publisher Restrictions, which outline the types of content which will receive restricted sources of advertising. These include: Sexual Content, Shocking Content, Explosives, Guns, Gun Parts & Related Products, Other Weapons, Tobacco, Recreational Drugs, Alcohol Sales and Misuse, Online Gambling, Prescription Drugs, and Unapproved Pharmaceuticals and Supplements. Google Ads (formerly AdWords) will continue not to serve on any of this restricted content; it will only receive ads from other advertising products or via the use of direct deals between publishers and advertisers. • Alignment across our publisher products, bringing simplicity, consistency, and ease of understanding, regardless of the product(s) you choose to use. What it means for you as an AdSense publisher: Monetizing content that falls under the Google Publisher Restrictions will no longer be a policy violation; instead, we will restrict advertising on that content as appropriate, based on the preferences of each advertising product and/or advertisers’ individual preferences. In some cases this will mean that no advertising sources are bidding on your inventory and no ads will appear on this restricted content. So while you can choose to monetize content covered by the Google Publisher Restrictions, doing so will mean you will likely receive less advertising on this restricted content than you would receive on other, nonrestricted content. Content that falls under the Google Publisher Policies is not allowed to be monetized and you should not place ads against that content. As with our current policies today, attempting to monetize policy-violating content may result in your account(s) being suspended or terminated. Please note that these policies and restrictions will apply in addition to any other policies governing your use of Google publisher products. What you need to do: Nothing at this time. The Help Center and Policy Center will be updated in September 2019 when this takes effect with the full breakdown of policies and restrictions. At that time, please review the updated policies and restrictions and ensure that your content is in compliance. Please note that going forward, Google will be announcing updates to our policies and restrictions for AdSense on this change log. Publishers are required to keep abreast of changes to policies and be in compliance with them at all times. Sincerely, The Google AdSense Team

This appears to limit demonetization significantly. However, under Google Publisher Policies, "Derogatory Content" is mentioned which appears to have the potential to be stretched pretty wide.

And under Google Publisher Restrictions, the category "Shocking Content," is listed. I still have no idea what that means and as I previously reported, my mobile front page of Target Liberty was demonetized for  "Shocking Content." It was reversed on appeal but you have to wonder what can trigger these things.

Anyway, because of either market pressure or government threats or both, it appears that Google is attempting to develop, as they put it, a more "streamlined" policy when it comes to various types of demonetization. It appears to be a move in the right direction.

 -RW