Giving Compass' Take:
- The Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) coalition and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found examples of ads on climate disinformation YouTube videos.
- In October 2021, Google promised not to sell ads on YouTube videos that are spreading misinformation. How can donors help hold larger corporations accountable to not perpetuate climate misinformation?
- Read about addressing climate change disinformation in schools.
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A new report has found that Google is breaking its October 2021 promise to not sell ads on YouTube videos containing climate disinformation.
The Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) coalition and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) collected 200 examples of climate disinformation YouTube videos, which collectively serve ads to over 73 million viewers. But that’s “probably the tip of the iceberg,” CCDH head of research Callum Hood told the New York Times. Of those videos, (with 18 million total views), 100 meet Google’s very narrow definition of climate disinformation, which applies only to denial of the existence or human causes of climate change.
The second set of 100 videos meets CAAD’s definition of climate disinformation, which accounts for popular tactics like greenwashing. These videos amassed 55 million views, demonstrating the weakness of Google’s current definition of climate disinformation.
During the course of the research, only eight videos in the researchers’ dataset were demonetized by Google. “Tech companies make big promises on hate and misinformation because they know it’s hard to see if they’ve kept them,” said CCDH’s Head of Research Callum Hood in a press release.
Read the full article about climate disinformation by Climate Nexus at EcoWatch.