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Google and YouTube content creators who post climate misinformation will no longer be able to monetize their content. In an announcement, Google said that all content that contradicts well-established scientific facts about climate change will no longer receive advertisement revenue.
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In a statement, Google said it will restrain advertisement revenue for creators who refer to climate change as a hoax. “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,” company officials explained in a statement.
Related: YouTube stars partner up in #TeamTrees campaign to plant 20 million trees
According to Google, other content creators and advertisers do not want to associate with accounts that spread misinformation. “Advertisers simply don’t want their ads to appear next to this content. And publishers and creators don’t want ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos,” the statement added.
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There has been uproar from various quarters lamenting Google’s algorithm and how it supports climate misinformation. Last year, advocacy group Avaaz concluded in a study that the algorithm used by YouTube allowed climate misinformers to get paid for their misleading content.
“Some of the largest household brands in the world, including Samsung, L’Oréal, Warner Bros, Carrefour, and Danone, as well as two of the largest environmental groups in the world, Greenpeace International and World Wildlife Fund, have advertisements running on these climate misinformation videos,” Avaaz said.
Besides YouTube, many other social media sites also running climate misinformation posts. A recent report by Common Dreams revealed that Facebook allows up to 99% of climate misinformation posts to go unchecked.
Google is stepping up the fight against misinformation by denying these content creators ad revenue. Recently, YouTube also announced that it will ban several anti-vaccine accounts. Though Google has taken some steps to stop the spreading of such lies, these measures may not go far enough. Fully blocking such accounts could help stop the wrong messages from reaching the public.
Via Common Dreams
Lead image via Pexels
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