Google charges advertisers for fake YouTube video views, say researchers

Study claims AdWords users face bill even when tech firm's own systems have correctly identified viewer as bot

Google has been challenged about its approach to advertisers after a study claimed that the company has been charging advertisers for YouTube views even when it thinks that the advert was viewed by a robot, rather than a human.

A group of European researchers behind the study carried out an experiment in which they uploaded videos to YouTube and then bought YouTube adverts targeting those videos. They also created bots, software that runs automated tasks over the internet, to view the videos.