We need strict liability on this front. Google is complicit. No newspaper or equivalent publication in the days before web ads would allow ads that are down at the level of scam that seemingly make up the modus operandi of Google today (and even the ads back then that did bend the truth a bit, overpromised, or showed products that didn't actually have any legitimate use, shouldn't really have been legal back then either. They just weren't big enough of a problem to worry about).

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mikestew 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The water-injection system for your carburetor that the oil companies don't want you to know about! -- paraphrase of an actual Popular Mechanics ad circa 1978

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fho 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Joke's (partly) on you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_injection_(engine)

	▲	mikestew 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Oh, it's been proven to work, even in a limited number of production vehicles. Just not with what you buy out of the back of a magazine. :-)

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patrakov 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

We need strict liability on this front. Companies behind websites that embed ads that they didn't verify (and don't control) are complicit.

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antonymoose an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Liability is kind of wild and the fact that “the internet” washes it all away is wilder still.

In my state, which perhaps takes liability too far in the other direction, if I serve sober you a single beer, you proceed to visit a second bar, have ten shots of tequila in an hour, and kill a man driving home - I share equal liability as the tequila bar.

Perhaps there is a middle ground in this world where a firm that makes billions has to have some basic “Know Your Customer” systems to prevent abuse?

	▲	cindyllm 9 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		[dead]

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Telaneo an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I have a feeling this is supposed to be mocking and showing that the liability might extend too far.

Either way, I agree with the literal interpretation. They should vet the ads they serve and are complicit in this mess if they serve ads through Google et al.