Google's Adwords platform includes rules to prohibit some advertising campaigns, and it employs a "limited," targeted approach for products and services that it deems "legally or culturally sensitive." Its list of outright banned topics grew one larger on Wednesday with a call from Google to ban all ads for payday loans and "related products."

The ban, which will go into effect on July 13, puts specific conditions on the types of loans that can be advertised on Adwords. To clarify the definition of a "payday loan," Director of Global Product Policy David Graff announced that an ad cannot be placed if the loan requires full repayment within 60 days or if its annual percentage rate (APR) is 36 percent or higher.

"When reviewing our policies, research has shown that these loans can result in unaffordable payment and high default rates for users, so we will be updating our policies globally to reflect that," Graff wrote in the announcement. After quoting a critic who opposed "predatory lending," Graff mentioned that the ban's effectiveness will be "reviewed" over time.

Graff was clear that this ban will not impact ads for "loans such as mortgages, car loans, student loans, commercial loans, [or] revolving lines of credit (e.g. credit cards)." By making this call, Google is in effect establishing a usury standard even in American states that don't issue such APR bans or otherwise have usury laws on the books—but it is also following other sites' lead in doing so, including Facebook's outright ban on ads for payday loans.

Adwords' existing "prohibited content" rules include bans on goods that are counterfeit, "dangerous," or overtly offensive, plus those that market dishonest wares such as academic cheating and click-inflation services. Meanwhile, its "restricted" list allows ads for products and services in such categories as porn, gambling, politics, and healthcare on a limited, targeted basis, either with requirements that local laws are obeyed or that specific topics and images are not included. (Adwords' policy page on adult services is so comprehensive that it even clarifies the site's stance on "cuddling sites.")