The News Media Coalition is raising a red flag over a surge of over 4,000 AI-generated fake news websites exploiting Google’s Discover and search platforms for ad revenue—an alarming revelation uncovered by investigative journalist Jean-Marc Manach
These predominantly French-language websites—plus at least 100 in English—are produced by SEO specialists and rely on two main scams: backlinking to boost SEO for other sites and inserting themselves into Google Discover to harvest Google AdSense ad revenue Press Gazette.
Manach’s investigation began in early 2024 with 70 such sites, ballooning to more than 4,000 by mid-2025—a scale he admits he “could never have imagined. Two operators are now believed to have become millionaires from these schemes .
What’s more worrying: Google Discover’s algorithm appears “unable to deal” with these sites, enabling them to monetize clickbait and fabricated AI stories—ranging from banknotes disappearing to pyramids under mountains Press Gazette. Many use AI-generated images and blatant clickbait, knowing that striking or alarming headlines are more likely to attract attention .
Notably, YouTube tutorials have emerged since 2023 teaching people how to hack Google Discover to deploy AI content farms—a tactic spreading beyond France Press Gazette.
Manach calls for urgent action to combat this trend:
“It’s becoming more and more difficult to spot deep fakes and synthetic contents generated by AI, but we must fight this pollution… because it threatens journalism, our democracies, and the right to be informed”.
While Google insists its spam‑fighting systems are robust and Discover remains “99% spam‑free,” Manach’s findings suggest new measures are needed to identify and filter AI-driven deception.
