New research has revealed that Google’s ad exchange has been serving ads on hundreds of questionable websites that are listed on the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list, which is a violation of the tech giants’ own policies as well as the  governments.

Google has been under global scrutiny for its far-reaching authority in the digital marketing sector, but this latest revelation could represent legal risks, and its reputation of challenging its public commitment to battling disinformation globally.

Research by Adalytics, a digital ads analysis group, uncovered Google had run ads on websites in sanctioned Iran and Russia and that the search titan had also displays search ads on its own platform but also on other third-party websites in the “Google Search Partner network”, such as YouTube.

Further investigation found Google was displaying ads on websites alongside explicit and pirated content and that ads, for instance, for the U.S. Secret Service, FBI, and the U.S. Treasury, were found on a Russian and an Iranian-sanctioned website.

According to research, some of the websites could have undisclosed amounts of payments for hosting the adverts.

Dan Taylor, Google’s vice-president of global ads, said they would ensure to address the research findings to ensure they are following U.S. sanctions and their own policies, but did allude to Adalytics having inaccuracies in previously published reports.

“We’ll of course review the report, but our analysis of the sites and limited information already shared with us did not identify ad revenue being shared with a single sanctioned entity,” Taylor said.

Before their latest report, Google disregarded an Adalytics report claiming that YouTube was posting ads on partner websites in ways that concealed them from users, but Adalytics rejected the tech giant’s claims.

Within the report, Adalytics included various screenshots of adverts juxtaposed next to questionable content, violating Google’s policies.

Brands affected included Apple, Amazon, BMW, Goldman Sachs, KPMG, Walmart and Meta, whereas some alcohol brands had a mismatch of advertising and were placed on children’s websites.

Not only brands were affected, but politicians, including U.S. senators Ted Cruz and Amy Klobuchar, were also found on the violating sites, according to Adalytics.

“For over eight years now I have raised grave concerns with the [Federal Trade Commission] and the Department of Justice over the extent to which digital advertising intermediaries maintain a concentrated ecosystem rife with fraud,” Mark Warner, the Democratic chair of the Senate select committee on intelligence, said in a statement.

“The monetisation of sanctioned entities’ websites should be the final straw for the government to take action to clean up this market,” he added.

Reacting to the news, some advertisers criticised Google and said they do not have much control regarding ad placement.

As reported by the Financial Times, an anonymous “global media head at a big brand” said that its clients now want more transparency and will want the tech group to give access to its systems for third-party verification.