New York (CNN Business) Some of the country's biggest news organizations are showing ads for face masks on their websites. That's despite appeals from health officials for people to stop buying masks because of a shortage for frontline health care workers battling coronavirus.

Ads for the masks have appeared on the websites of CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNBC, over the past two weeks, according to data seen by CNN Business.

The ads often appear alongside news coverage of the novel coronavirus.

CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNBC all show ads to their readers that are sourced through Google's advertising platform Google Ads. Google pledged earlier this month to ban ads for face masks but the company has failed to successfully do so.

A Google spokesperson told CNN Business Friday that it works closely with publishers on putting in additional controls on their websites and has a dedicated task force trying to stop people running ads for items like face masks.

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