Google – Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) – announced it would stop climate change-denying content from being monetized on YouTube and other sites. The breakthrough comes at a time when experts continue to warn that the world is heading toward an imminent climate emergency.
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Cutting Off Add Money
Google’s ads team wrote in a statement: “In recent years, we’ve heard directly from a growing number of our advertising and publisher partners who have expressed concerns about ads that run alongside or promote inaccurate claims about climate change.”
“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.”
According to the HuffPost, content considered to be offensive will comprise everything that claims that climate change is a hoax, or that disregards scientific evidence on how the planet is warming. Also, “content that denies that greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels contribute to climate change.”
The internet giant said ads and monetization will be permitted on other climate-related subjects such as “public debates on climate policy, the varying impacts of climate change, new research, and more.”
A Dire Path
The policies are to be implemented as of November and will be monitored through a blend of human review and automated tools.
Google relied on “authoritative sources” to design the new guidelines, such as experts who took part in the formulation of the United Nations’ seminal climate documents and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments.
Google is already demonetizing some content and has banned videos that depict the use of firearms or those about tragic events. “YouTube also said last month it would ban all content that includes anti-vaccine content.”
An IPCC report revealed in August concluded that the planet is heading toward severe climate change for the next 30 years, mainly due to the use of fossil fuels. The dire consequences can be avoided by a thorough and rapid reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as the report findings are seen as a code red.
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