The Funding of False Facts--Advertising Money is Fueling Conspiracy Theories Opinion
The Funding of False Facts—Advertising Money is Fueling Conspiracy Theories | Opinion
Patricia Duff and Tom Rogers , The Common Good CEO; Newsweek editor-at-large
On 2/18/21 at 6:00 AM EST
https://www.newsweek.com/funding-false-factsadvertising-money-fueling-conspiracy-theories-opinion-1569967?utm_source=spotim&utm_medium=spotim_recirculation
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The report found that brands advertising on election misinformation sites include Progressive Insurance, Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Disney, American Express, AT&T, Bloomingdales, Best Western, Best Buy, Verizon, Michaels, New Balance and a range of nonprofit groups such as AARP, Harvard University, American Cancer Society and Planned Parenthood.
The report goes on to say these and other well-known companies have had their ads show up on websites such as ZeroHedge, The Gateway Pundit, OANN, Sputnik and American Thinker, all of which have pushed spurious conspiracy theories and falsehoods about the election.
NewsGuard found that the problem was especially pronounced for the largest digital ad exchanges like Google's DoubleClick advertising service, which placed ads on more than 80 percent of election misinformation sites, and The Trade Desk, which placed ads on more than half.
NewsGuard further found that there were 1,668 brands that funded election misinformation sites, and of those, close to half ran ads on multiple sites. Progressive Insurance was found to have run on the largest number of election misinformation sites, with 298 ads across 25 separate such sites.
According to NewsGuard, Walmart ran ads on 11 election misinformation sites, including NOQ Report, a site that has claimed "that the CIA worked with Democrats to change voting machine results ... and that COVID-19 was planned by Bill Gates and other billionaires."
Even Disney, a company with huge sophistication in digital media, placed ads on CharlieKirk.com, a site that peddled election falsehoods and claimed that COVID-19 was a hoax. According to NewsGuard, major advertiser American Express had ads on Sputnik, a Russian government mouthpiece site that promotes propaganda and perpetuates lies to U.S. audiences.
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Patricia Duff is CEO of The Common Good, a non-profit, nonpartisan group that encourages informed understanding of critical national issues.
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