Google will no longer allow advertisers, publishers, and YouTube creators to monetize content that denies the existence of climate change. The company detailed the changes in a support document on October 7th.
“Today, we’re announcing a new monetization policy for Google advertisers, publishers and YouTube creators that will prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change,” the Google Ads team said in the document. “This includes content referring to climate change as a hoax or a scam, claims denying that long-term trends show the global climate is warming, and claims denying that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to climate change.”
Google says it will use a mix of automated tools and human reviews to enforce the policy. “When evaluating content against this new policy, we’ll look carefully at the context in which claims are made, differentiating between content that states a false claim as fact, versus content that reports on or discusses that claim,” Google said. Ads will still be allowed on climate topics like public debates on climate policy, research, and more, according to Google.
The increased action against climate change deniers marks Google’s second big misinformation policy change in recent days, arriving about a week after YouTube banned vaccine misinformation. It follows new features announced by the search giant intended to help people shrink their carbon footprints.
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