Google Charges for YouTube Ads Viewed by Bots

Financial Times: Google has been charging marketers for advertisements it places on YouTube even when the video platform’s fraud-detection systems identify that a “viewer” is a robot rather than a human being. The findings, revealed in an experiment by European researchers, raise questions about whether Google is doing enough to protect advertisers from deception. Fake views of ads by “bots” — computer programs that mimic the behavior of Internet users — have become a big problem for marketers as they shift an increasing portion of their advertising budgets online.