Technology

Google Promised to Defund Climate Lies, but the Ads Keep Coming

In October 2021, Google promised to stop placing ads next to content that denies the existence and causes of climate change. This made it impossible for providers of false claims to make money on platforms, including YouTube.

Still, if you recently clicked on a YouTube video titled ‘Who is Leonardo DiCaprio’, climate change is a hoax and the ramblings of claims that the world is cooling off after Paramount + ads for the movie ’80 for Brady’ you may have found something. Starring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Rita Moreno.

Some users saw an ad for Alaska Airlines before another video aimed to detail “how climate activists are distorting the evidence.”

According to the Coalition of Environmental Organizations and the Center for Countering Digital Hate, these are not unusual.of report Researchers at the organization announced Tuesday accused YouTube of continuing to profit from videos that portray the changing climate as a hoax or exaggeration.

They found 100 videos with a combined total of at least 18 million views that violated Google’s own policies. They found videos with advertisements for other major brands such as Adobe, Costco, Calvin Klein and Politico. Even Google’s search engine ads appeared before the video claiming there was no scientific consensus about the changing climate.

Callum Hood, director of research at the Center for Digital Hate, said in an interview:

Watching videos is a time-consuming task and access to data is limited, making it difficult to assess the full extent of misinformation on YouTube, researchers say. “I think it’s probably the tip of the iceberg,” Hood added, referring to their findings.

“It’s abominable that YouTube violates its own policies by running ads-laden climate hoax videos,” Fonda, who runs a political action committee dedicated to fighting climate change, said in a statement. on fire. “

“I am appalled that an ad for my film is appearing in one of those videos. I hope YouTube will stop this practice immediately,” Fonda said.

According to The New York Times, ads for food delivery service Grubhub were shown multiple times before climate change denial videos. A Grubhub spokeswoman said the company is working with her YouTube and other partners to “prevent her Grubhub ads from appearing alongside content that promotes misinformation.” rice field.

YouTube spokesman Michael Aciman said in a statement that the company “allowed policy discussions and discussions about climate-related initiatives, but if content crossed the line into climate change denial, we would remove ads from those videos.” to remove,” he said.

He added that YouTube has removed ads from several videos flagged by researchers, including one promoting “80 for Brady.”

As misinformation develops into a greater scourge online, YouTube is embracing a desire to be an open platform for diverse views and an interest in providing users with proven facts about important topics. tried to balance In recent years, the platform has cracked down on lies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and false claims about vaccines.

When the company changed its climate change rules in 2021, advertisers and publishing partners said they were increasingly uncomfortable being shown alongside inaccurate climate content.

Google’s policies prohibit content that calls climate change a hoax or fraud, denies long-term trends that the climate is warming, or that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contributes to climate change. Applies to content that denies

Underneath some of the climate videos the researchers found (with and without ads), YouTube had a “context” box containing credible information, suggesting that the video contained false or at least disputed claims. It shows that you know what you are doing. “Climate change refers to long-term changes in temperature and weather patterns caused primarily by human activity, especially the burning of fossil fuels,” wrote YouTube. United Nations site It is a hot topic.

A study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate and Climate Action Against Disinformation, a global coalition of more than 50 environmental advocacy groups, suggested that YouTube overlooked or ignored violating content. They identified another 100 videos that didn’t explicitly violate Google’s policies but met the broader definition of climate disinformation.

“This shows that YouTube is currently profiting from much broader climate disinformation than is covered by narrowly crafted policies,” the report said.

Videos cited by the group come from a variety of sources, including experts, podcasters and advocacy groups.

It included industry giants like Exxon Mobil, whose videos did not explicitly violate YouTube’s policies. Mainstream conservative media outlets like Fox News have occasionally done so in their videos. (Fox’s recently fired anchorman Tucker Carlson describes the fight against climate change as “a concerted effort by the Chinese government to sabotage the United States and the West and establish themselves as world leaders.”) and scoffed.)

ExxonMobil and Fox did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Researchers found that almost every video contains ads. This meant that YouTube was making money from the content and, in some cases, paying the creators of the videos. Ad placement is an automated process. Videos on the platform are often targeted to a specific audience, so different users are shown different commercials before the same video is played.

After reaching 1,000 subscribers and a user watching 4,000 hours of video, creators can be paid by YouTube as a member of the company’s partner program. An unknown number of videos featured climate misinformation by the program’s creators.

“What makes YouTube particularly dangerous is that it makes money per video,” said Claire Atkin, co-founder of Check My Ads, an advocacy group that studies online advertising. but was not involved in this investigation. “If someone posted this information on Facebook, they wouldn’t make any money, but if they posted a video on YouTube, they would have the opportunity to make full money on their disinformation.”

She said YouTube is a powerful force in radicalizing people online and more needs to be done to control content on YouTube. “The fact that they haven’t changed it, the fact that they’re still funding — not advertising, fundraising — Sending advertisers to sponsor climate change disinformation is yet another proof of their incompetence. “

Related Articles

Back to top button