On this week’s episode of TheMadTech Podcast, Emily Palmer, consultant at Emily Ad Woman and board member of The Women in Programmatic Network, joins ExchangeWire’s Lindsay Rowntree and Ciaran O’Kane to discuss Russian ad bans; Accelerated Mobile Pages; and Google’s Checks.

Story 1: Big Tech platforms are taking steps to limit advertising by Russian state media in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Facebook and Google-owned YouTube have barred such ads from their platforms, with the latter also demonetising the videos of and limiting recommendations to a number of Russian state media channels. Twitter, meanwhile, have ceased all advertising in both countries in order to “ensure critical public safety information is elevated and ads don’t detract from it”, according to a company statement.

What impact could this action have on the conflict, if any? What does this move and the pressure these platforms are receiving say about the amount of soft power they have? What does it suggest about the responsibility of social media platforms, both with regards to the dissemination of information and in terms of political influence? What could the ramifications be for these platforms?

Story 2: A number of large publishers are distancing themselves from a Google scheme which claimed to offer an optimised mobile browsing experience. BDG, BuzzFeed, and Vox Media are amongst the companies who have revealed they will explore building their own mobile-optimised article pages without using Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) framework, which they say generates lower levels of advertising revenue.

How effective has AMP been since its introduction in 2015? Are media executives right to be dropping the framework? How significant is this move and what does it say about the relationship between Google and media owners? Could it be a sign of things to come? Do you agree that header bidding can offer a better solution for advertisers? What are the pros and cons of header bidding?

Story 3: Google have introduced Checks, a new platform that promises to make it easier for app developers to confirm that their offerings are in line with privacy legislation. Using AI, the new service will scan codebases to assess how closely the product meets regulations and give automated insights and recommendations to rectify any potential transgressions.

Do you think the Checks product is a good idea? Do you think it could help to streamline compliance? Do you think Google (or any similar company) should have ownership over this kind of product? Why do you think developers might be finding it difficult to “keep up” with privacy regulations? What can be done to resolve this issue, and who should be doing it – should it be up to industry bodies, or to individual companies?