There will soon be no more ads denying climate change on Google

On Thursday evening, Google announced that it is demonetizing content that makes misleading or false claims about climate change. Therefore, content that challenges or denies the scientific consensus around anthropogenic climate change will not be accompanied by Google advertising. In addition, Google will no longer run any advertising that “contradicts the well-established scientific consensus on the existence and causes of climate change”.

With a global public health crisis unfolding amid natural disasters fueled, at least in part, by man-made climate change, the amount of misinformation and outright lies is not only frustrating but dangerous. Google has been criticized for its role in spreading disinformation, and many people are unhappy with it. People who pay for ads don’t want their ads to appear alongside videos filled with misinformation, and content producers don’t want their product interrupted by ads filled with errors.

Message received, says Google. “We have heard directly from a growing number of our advertising partners and publishers who have expressed concerns about ads running alongside or promoting inaccurate claims about climate change,” Google said. “Advertisers just don’t want their ads to appear alongside this content. And publishers and creators don’t want ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos.”

Google will use its usual combination of human eyes and automated tools for the app once the policy goes into effect in November.