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Celerity

(42,645 posts)
Sat Oct 9, 2021, 04:45 AM Oct 2021

Google bans ads on content, including YouTube videos, with false claims about climate change.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/07/technology/google-youtube-ads-climate-change-misinformation.html



Google said it will no longer display advertisements on YouTube videos and other content that promote inaccurate claims about climate change. The decision, by the company’s ads team, means that it will no longer permit websites or YouTube creators to earn advertising money via Google for content that “contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change.” And it will not allow ads that promote such views from appearing. “In recent years, we’ve heard directly from a growing number of our advertising and publisher partners who have expressed concerns about ads that run alongside or promote inaccurate claims about climate change,” the company said.

The policy applies to content that refers to climate change as a hoax or a scam, denies the long-term trend that the climate is warming, or denies that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity is contributing to climate change. Google limits or restricts advertising alongside certain sensitive topics or events, such as firearms-related videos or content about a tragic event. This is the first time Google has added climate change denial to the list. Facebook, Google’s main rival for digital advertising dollars, does not have an explicit policy outlawing advertisements denying climate change.

In addition to not wanting to be associated with climate change misinformation, ad agencies, in an echo of their shift away from the tobacco business decades earlier, have begun to re-evaluate their association with fossil-fuel clients. Agencies such as Forsman & Bodenfors have signed pledges to no longer work for oil and gas producers. Calls have increased to ban the industry from advertising on city streets and sponsoring sports teams.

Greenpeace USA and other environmental groups filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission earlier this year accusing Chevron of “consistently misrepresenting its image to appear climate-friendly and racial justice-oriented, while its business operations overwhelmingly rely on climate-polluting fossil fuels.” Exxon faces lawsuits from Democratic officials in several states accusing it of using ads, among other methods, to deceive consumers about climate change. Publications such as the British Medical Journal, The Guardian and the Swedish publications Dagens Nyheter and Dagens ETC have limited or stopped accepting fossil fuel ads. The New York Times prevents oil and gas companies from sponsoring its climate newsletter, its climate summit or its podcast “The Daily,” but it allows the industry to advertise elsewhere.

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Google bans ads on content, including YouTube videos, with false claims about climate change. (Original Post) Celerity Oct 2021 OP
Well, my video on the subject is still up on youtube DFW Oct 2021 #1
Follow the Money Roy Rolling Oct 2021 #2
My videos are mostly for fun, and intended to provoke a little thought DFW Oct 2021 #3
About time malaise Oct 2021 #4
Does this include ads that claim that climate change can be prevented? Kaleva Oct 2021 #5
They tell me censorship is a bad thing but in an age of lies what choice do you have? /nt bucolic_frolic Oct 2021 #6
Censorship by private entities has always been around Kaleva Oct 2021 #7

DFW

(54,050 posts)
1. Well, my video on the subject is still up on youtube
Sat Oct 9, 2021, 05:12 AM
Oct 2021

I guess it wasn't considered to contain "unfactual" propaganda......

Roy Rolling

(6,853 posts)
2. Follow the Money
Sat Oct 9, 2021, 05:37 AM
Oct 2021

This seemingly innocuous step is really gigantic. Major propaganda players like the Russian government are self-funded, but all of the minions who display such shit for profit aren’t.

This may not eliminate propaganda directly, but it eliminates the Putin wannabes from becoming well-funded. Let them find a real job and stop trolling on social media.

Genuine content like yours should not be affected.

DFW

(54,050 posts)
3. My videos are mostly for fun, and intended to provoke a little thought
Sat Oct 9, 2021, 05:54 AM
Oct 2021

There are far too many out there whose motives are anything but innocuous.

Kaleva

(36,146 posts)
5. Does this include ads that claim that climate change can be prevented?
Sat Oct 9, 2021, 07:17 AM
Oct 2021

There appears to be growing consensus amongst scientists that we are very near the tipping point or are already past the point of no return.

Kaleva

(36,146 posts)
7. Censorship by private entities has always been around
Sat Oct 9, 2021, 07:51 AM
Oct 2021

Newspaper editors decide what is reported and how it's reported.

DU is heavily censored. A post can be hidden and a member csn be banned

What we don't want is govt. censorship.

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