In October, ahead of the U.N. COP 26 climate summit, Google pledged to stop displaying ads on websites and YouTube videos that promoted climate misinformation. But in November and December the company ran ads on at least 50 posts undermining climate science, according to new research.
The findings, released Thursday from the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate, highlight the limits of these promises, despite Google citing pressure from advertisers not wanting products to appear alongside content undermining climate science when it made the pledge. All 50 of the articles were published after Google’s new policy took effect on Nov. 9, and Google ads remained on the pages as of Wednesday morning. After The Washington Post inquired about these ads, 37 of them were removed as of Wednesday.
The problem isn’t limited to Google. Facebook in November said it was expanding efforts to boost accurate content about climate misinformation. But the research to be released Thursday from the left-leaning group Avaaz shows that between Jan. 1, 2020 and Nov. 11, the company allowed 92 ads containing climate misinformation to run. In some instances, the ads remained after Facebook’s fact-checking partners debunked the posts.
The Avaaz study found that conservative groups, including PragerU and Turning Point USA, spent a combined $56,900 to promote climate misinformation through Facebook’s ad platform. The 92 ads were seen nearly 7 million times, the study found. Turning Point USA’s...
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