Google stops serving ads about climate change misinformation



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Google has said it will no longer display ads on YouTube videos and other content promoting inaccurate climate change claims.

The move, made by the company’s advertising team, means it will no longer allow websites or YouTube creators to earn advertising money through Google for content that “contradicts the well-established scientific consensus on the subject. ‘existence and causes of climate change’. And it will not allow the display of ads promoting such views.

β€œIn recent years, 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,” the company said.

The policy applies to content that refers to climate change as a hoax or scam, denies the long-term trend for the climate to warm up, or denies that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity are contributing to it. climate change.

Google limits or restricts advertising to certain sensitive topics or events, such as gun videos or tragic event content. This is the first time that Google has added the denial of climate change to the list.

Facebook, Google’s main rival for digital ad dollars, does not have an explicit policy banning ads denying climate change.

In addition to not wanting to be associated with climate change misinformation, advertising companies, echoing their abandonment of the tobacco business decades earlier, have begun to reassess their association with fossil fuel customers. Agencies such as Forsman & Bodenfors have pledged to stop working for oil and gas producers. There have been increased calls 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 “systematically distorting its image to appear climate-friendly and racial justice-driven, while its business operations hinge on much of it on climate-polluting fossil fuels ”. Exxon faces lawsuits from Democratic officials in several states, accusing it of using ads, among other methods, to mislead consumers about climate change.

Publications such as the British Medical Journal, The Guardian and Swedish publications Dagens Nyheter and Dagens ETC have limited or stopped accepting fossil fuel advertising. The New York Times bars oil and gas companies from sponsoring its climate newsletter, climate summit or podcast “The Daily,” but it allows the industry to advertise elsewhere.

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