Google and YouTube announced that they will take measures to strip online content of revenue-producing opportunities if they express skepticism about global warming.
According to the report from TheBlaze, In a statement from Google’s ad team on Thursday, the massive online company said they would deny ad revenue from content that contradicts “well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change.”
Google says the new policy is in response to advertisers expressing frustration that their ads are appearing on content they disagree with. “Advertisers simply don’t want their ads to appear next to this content,” the company said. “And publishers and creators don’t want ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos.”
According to Axios, “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.”
Ads and monetization will still be allowed to run alongside other climate-related topics, like public debates on climate policy, impacts of climate change, and new research around the issue.
Google said it’s making these changes in response to frustration from advertisers and content creators about their messages appearing alongside climate denialism. “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 company said.
