"Google Promised to Defund Climate Lies, but the Ads Keep Coming"

"Google said in 2021 that it would stop running ads alongside videos and other content that denied the existence and causes of climate change."

"In October 2021, Google promised to stop placing ads alongside content that denied the existence and causes of climate change, so that purveyors of the false claims could no longer make money on its platforms, including YouTube.

And yet if you recently clicked on a YouTube video titled “who is Leonardo DiCaprio,” you might have found a ramble of claims that climate change is a hoax and the world is cooling after a Paramount+ ad for the film “80 for Brady,” starring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Sally Field and Rita Moreno.

Before another video that purported to detail “how climate activists distort the evidence,” some users saw an ad for Alaska Airlines.

These are not aberrations, according to a coalition of environmental organizations and the Center for Countering Digital Hate. In a report released on Tuesday, researchers from the organizations accused YouTube of continuing to profit from videos that portrayed the changing climate as a hoax or exaggeration."

Nico Grant and Steven Lee Myers report for the New York Times May 2, 2023.

Source: NYTimes, 05/03/2023