Youtube’s parent company, Google, has announced that it will demonetize content on the platform, including climate change denial and limit monetization tools for creators who post such videos.
On arguably the largest video platform in the world, the company changed its ad policy amid increasing pressure to combat misinformation about climate change.
Due to an increasing number of extreme weather events caused by climate change, scientists and activists have been calling for more concrete steps to combat climate change and misinformation.
Several of our advertising and publisher partners have expressed concerns about ads that promote inaccurate claims about climate change in recent years, the company said in a statement. Publishers and content creators do not wish their pages or videos to be populated with ads that promote these claims. And advertisers also do not wish their ads to appear next to this content.”
We will demonetize content that suggests climate change is a scam or a hoax, disputes “well-established scientific consensus” proving that the earth is warming up, or claims human activities such as burning fossil fuels and producing meat do not contribute to climate change.
According to the New York Times, Google already restricts monetization of certain types of content, including videos featuring firearms and tragic events. Earlier last month, the company announced that it would ban all forms of content featuring anti-vaccine rhetoric.
According to the company, as part of the YouTube Partner Program, Google Ads will be subject to the new rules concerning climate change. The tech giant has not disclosed whether it will remove the content entirely from its platform, as it did with vaccine-denial content.