Google bans climate misinformation monetisation

Google said it will prohibit adverts from running on YouTube videos and other content referring to climate change as a hoax or a scam.

The policy, which begins from next month, will also include content that denies long-term climate warming trends and claims denying that greenhouse gases or human activities contribute to climate change.

Advertisers will also be prohibited from running ads containing climate-denying claims.

Preventing the monetisation of videos will not remove the content itself from YouTube. 

In a blog post announcing the policy, Google said: “When evaluating content against this new policy, we’ll look carefully at the context in which claims are made, differentiating between content that states a false claim as fact, versus content that reports on or discusses that claim.”

The company will use a combination of automated tools and human review to determine which ads and content are violating the policy, applicable to publisher content, Google-served ads and YouTube videos that are monetising through the platform’s partner programme.

Google said it will continue to allow ads and monetisation on other climate-related topics, including public debates on climate policy and the varying impacts of climate change.