Google changes policy to prevent false info over climate change

Google has updated its ads and monetization policies to prevent the spread of false information on climate change.

The company said Thursday in a blog post that the new policy will also apply to YouTube, which last week announced a sweeping crackdown of vaccine misinformation.

“We’ve heard directly from a growing number of our advertising and publisher partners who have expressed concerns about ads that run alongside or promote inaccurate claims about climate change,” Google said.

Publishers and creators on YouTube ”don’t want ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos,” according to Google.

The new monetization policy for Google advertisers, publishers, and YouTube creators that “will prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change,” the Google blog post said.

“Google continues to apply this policy against publisher content, Google-sponsored ads, and YouTube videos that are monetized through YouTube’s Partner Program using a combination of automated tools and human reviews. We will begin implementing this policy next month,” Google said.