Google has blocked ads for a commonwealth-funded STI awareness campaign as “adult content” in a move sexual health organisations say frustrates efforts to share evidence-based public health information online.

The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, told a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday that the tech company’s moderation practices had recently undermined the reach and cost-effectiveness of the national campaign, run by Sexual and Reproductive Health Australia (SRHA). Online misinformation putting women off contraceptive pill, study finds Read more

Google added “STI testing” to its list of sensitive topics in November 2024, triggering an automatic rejection of each ad, causing weeks of delays, Waters said.

“It’s interfering with public health objectives and potentially wasting the

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