An anonymous whistleblower, claiming to be a former Google employee, came out last week and posted a scathing exposé accusing Google of banning hundreds of web publishers from its AdSense advertising system.
The leaker claims that Google underwent a massive AdSense policy change in 2009 because publishers were making too much money.
"We were told to go and look into publishers accounts, and if any publisher had accumulated earnings exceeding $5,000 and was near a payout or in the process of a payout, we were to ban the account right away and reverse the earnings back," he says.
If the accusation is true, it would mean Google has purposefully denied publishers and YouTubers payments earned through advertising and pocketed the earnings for themselves.
Google has flat-out denied the claim.
"This description of our AdSense policy enforcement process is a complete fiction," Google said in a statement. "Our teams and automated systems work around the clock to stop bad actors and protect our publishers, advertisers, and users".
The debate over the validity of the leaker has been raging in online forums, with many users claiming the leaker is simply a disgruntled AdSense publisher. Even Google's Matt Cutts jumped into the fray.
@Urgo @kittiesmamayt if they were really an employee, it's not hard to give some proof. And the whole "AQ3C" thing? Complete BS.— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) April 30, 2014
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