"The president of Google Brazil, @FabioJcoelho, can better explain how the platform works. We determined that his technical team should adopt strict procedures to avoid serving on inappropriate sites," said the head of Secom. "I've already asked advertising secretary Glen Valente for an official position," added Wajngarten on a social network.
Folha's report was based on information from the Presidency's Secom spreadsheets sent to CGU (Comptroller General of the Union), based on a request through the Citizen Information Service.
According to Folha de S. Paulo, the spreadsheets must still be sent to the Fake News CPMI in the coming days. The documents do not specify the total amount spent by Secom on the ads. In May of last year, the secretariat informed that it would spend R$ 37 million (US$6.45m) in advertising inserts on the pension reform, on television, internet, newspapers, radio, social media and airport panels.
The ads are distributed as follows. Secom hires advertising agencies that buy spaces through GoogleAdsense to run campaigns on websites, YouTube channels and mobile applications. The advertiser chooses what type of audience he wants to reach, on what types of sites he does not want his campaign to run, and which keywords should be banned. Then, Google distributes the ads to sites or YouTube channels that meet the criteria set by the advertiser.
The amount paid by Secom is divided between Google and the website or YouTube channel. Google's percentages vary, from 40% to 20% or less, depending on the negotiation between the sites and the platform. At the end, the advertiser receives a report on all his ads, where they were served, how many impressions and other data.
This Saturday (9th), after the publication of the Folha de S. Paulo report, Senator Alessandro Vieira, from the Cidadania bench and other senators from the group called Muda Senado, filed a misconduct representation against Secom. The group also presents a request for summoning secretary Fábio Wajngarten for clarification.
Sought before the report was published, Secom said that "Google's ad platform acts automatically based on parameters for delivering advertising content to stakeholders. The definitions are comprehensive and do not accurately determine the location on the internet where the ad will be served. However, in this specific case, we sought profiles recognized by the Google tool that have an affinity for the topic ‘Social Security’ and other correlations in accordance with syntax for the campaign theme."
"Commands were carried out to block the delivery of advertising on sites with inappropriate content, which incite violence or which violate human rights. This is a standard procedure, in compliance with the guidelines of law 6.555 / 2008," concludes the note.
This Saturday, in a note after Wajngarten's statement, Google said: "We are continually committed to providing training and consulting to our partners, both in the public and private sectors, so that they can improve the management of their ads."
Still in the note, Google claims to act daily to "minimize content that violates our policies and prevent the action of malicious people on our network". In 2019 alone, it says, the firm closed more than 1.2 million publisher accounts and removed ads from more than 21 million pages, due to policy violations. Through its adviser, Senator Angelo Coronel (PSD-BA), president of the CPMI of Fake News, stated that he would not comment on the matter because he “did not receive and does not know the information”.
Source: Folha
