In a strong bid to spread awareness about climate change, Google will no longer allow advertisers, publishers and YouTube creators to monetise content that denies the existence of climate change.
The new policy, announced on Thursday, goes into effect next month. Any other climate-related topics, including public debates on climate policy, impacts of climate change itself, new research and other related content, will be eligible for ads and hence, monetisation.
According to Google, they will “prohibit ads for, and monetisation of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change. 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.”
Taking climage change head-on
The company says it’ll be using a mix of automated bots and human reviews to decide whether or not a piece of content is eligible for this new monetisation criteria and enforce the new policy.
They’ll also be looking at the context in which these claims are made. The company needs to differentiate between content that states a false fact or misleading claim compared to content that reports or discusses respective claims.
Google also stated that it has worked closely with external experts, including consulting authoritative sources on climate science. These sources also include experts who have contributed to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Reports in the due process of coming up with this policy and its corresponding rules.
Moving forward with its plan for a more sustainable environment, Google also announced new features to Maps, Flights, Hotels and a new service called Nest Renew on Wednesday. These features aim to give users more information about the carbon footprint of their actions and hence, helping them make more sustainable choices.
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