Google Continues to Profit From Climate Denial

What's the story?

• In Oct. 2021, Google promised to stop inserting its advertisements alongside content that denied climate change. However, new research found that the company never followed the pledge and continues to attach its ads to climate denial material on major platforms, including YouTube. 
• Activists are condemning Google for promoting dangerous misinformation it claims to be fighting against, criticizing the tech giant for prioritizing its own profits over public safety and environmental health.

What did the research find?

• A coalition of environmental organizations, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, and Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) released a report last week that found YouTube, owned by Google, guilty of continuing to profit from videos that portrayed climate change as a hoax. 
• The researchers found 100 videos with at least 18 million total views that violated Google's vowed policy from the fall of 2021. The videos were accompanied by ads for major brands such as Adobe, Costco, Calvin Klein, Politico, and even Google. 
• The analysts found that YouTube included a "context" box stating accurate climate information on some videos. The presence of this box, however, led researchers to argue that YouTube knowingly overlooked disinformation content. The report said:

"This demonstrates that YouTube is currently profiting from a much broader range of climate disinformation than is covered by its narrowly drawn policies."

• Researchers said it is difficult to gauge the full scope of misinformation on YouTube. Callum Hood, head of research at the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said this study is "probably the tip of the iceberg." 

What they're saying

• Climate disinformation spokesperson at Friends of the Earth, a member of CAAD, Erika Seiber, said:

"Google is supporting the climate disinformation they say they want to stop…Disinformation persists because it's profitable, and Big Tech needs to remove that incentive."

• Actress and activist Jane Fonda, who runs a political action committee devoted to fighting climate change, stated that it was "abhorrent that YouTube would violate its own policy" by running climate denial videos with ads, adding validity to the misinformation while "the earth is burning." An ad for Fonda's new movie, "80 for Brady," played before a video claiming climate change is a hoax. She said: 

"I am appalled that an ad for one of my movies appears on one of those videos, and hope YouTube stops this practice immediately."

• A YouTube spokesperson, Michael Aciman, expressed that the company allowed "policy debate or discussions of climate-related initiatives, but when content crosses the line to climate change denial, we remove ads from serving on those videos."
• Callum Hood, head of research at the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said: 

"It really begs the question about what Google's current level of enforcement is."

The danger behind misinformation 

• The spreading of false information can be dangerous to the world, primarily around high-risk issues like public health crises, elections, and world events. 
• Co-founder of Check My Ads, an advocacy group studying online advertising, Claire Atikin, specified how misinformation on YouTube is particularly damaging since the company shares profit per video. 

"...[W]hen someone posts a video to YouTube, they have the opportunity to make a full salary on disinformation. The fact that they haven't changed that, that they are still funding – not promoting, funding — by sending advertisers to sponsor climate change disinformation is yet another proof point of their ineptitude."

Do you think that Google is allowing misinformation on climate change to spread? 

-Jamie Epstein