Google and YouTube toughened their regulations Thursday, October 7 against ads and content that deny global warming and its causes, by adopting a more aggressive measure than usual on social networks against this type of disinformation.
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The number one digital advertising company and its video service now ban advertisements and monetization of content that
"contradict the well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change,"
says a rule update for advertisers.
The platform therefore not only prohibits deceptive or deceptive ads, it also prevents climate-skeptic content creators from collecting advertising revenue.
“Advertisers just don't want their ads to appear alongside this kind of content.
And publishers and creators don't want ads that make these claims on their pages or videos, ”
Google explains.
64% of the audience for online videos
The regulation applies to messages that define climate change as a fabrication or a scam, those that deny that the climate is warming in the long term or that greenhouse gas emissions and human activity contribute to this reality. The California group is already restricting ad-backed advertising to certain sensitive topics, such as gun videos or tragic events, but climate change denial has not been one of those restricted content until now.
His neighbor Facebook, which is right behind him in the online advertising market, regularly communicates on his efforts to curb climate misinformation, but has no such ban in place on the subject.
The social media giant, which repeats over and over again that it does not want to become an arbiter of the truth, favors the highlighting of indisputable scientific facts via a section devoted to the environment.
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In January 2020, an American NGO, Avaaz, accused YouTube of directing millions of users to videos denying climate change.
Platforms are regularly accused of favoring content that arouses strong emotional reactions, to generate more traffic to be converted into advertising revenue.
The platform replied that it was doing its utmost to reduce the number of problematic content, while specifying that it would not censor those who did not violate its rules.
YouTube reached 2 billion monthly viewers worldwide this summer, or 64% of the audience for online videos, according to eMarketer.