The two largest advertising platforms on the internet, Google and Facebook, have announced plans to stop bail bonds services from advertising on their platforms.
Google and Facebook have announced that they will no longer be allowing bail bonds services to advertise on their platforms, claiming that the businesses are prey on vulnerable people. Google stated that they will begin stopping the businesses from posting on their platforms in July, according to Axios. David Graff, Google’s Director of Global Product Policy, published a blog post to the company’s AdWords website stating:
Today, we’re announcing a new policy to prohibit ads that promote bail bond services from our platforms. Studies show that for-profit bail bond providers make most of their revenue from communities of color and low income neighborhoods when they are at their most vulnerable, including through opaque financing offers that can keep people in debt for months or years.
Shortly after Google’s announcement, Facebook’s Vice President of Global Policy Management Monika Bickert said in a statement that Facebook would also be banning the advertisements. “Advertising that is predatory doesn’t have a place on Facebook,” said Bickert in a statement to Axios. Organisations such as the Essie Justice Group have been in talks with Google since 2017 relating to the issue of bail bonds businesses advertising on their platform.
In a message to supporters, the Essie Justice Group stated: “Google’s move to ban bail bonds ads is the most massive divestment any private sector entity has made from the bail industry.” Google also has plans to work with Koch Industries to co-sponsor an event that aims to discuss the reformation of the U.S. bail system. Google has credited Koch Industries with helping them come to their decision to ban bail bonds business advertisements.