Google let Daily Wire advertise climate change is a hoax searches | Climate crisis

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A media outlet founded by conservative influencer Ben Shapiro has paid Google to advertise on search pages wondering if the climate crisis is real, according to new research by a disinformation watchdog group.

The Daily Wire has bought ads on search terms over the past year such as climate change is a hoax and why climate change is false, meaning that when people Googled these phrases, Shapiros outlet stories were some of the first results to appear, the research found.

Google [is] actually selling the right to climate deniers to spread disinformation Imran Ahmed

Google also sold these ads after announcing a new policy in October 2021 that bans ads promoting denial about the climate crisis. Its CEO, Sundar Pichai, publicly said at the time that when people enter Google Search with questions about climate change, they will show authoritative information from sources like the United Nations.

Google’s hypocrisy knows no bounds, said Imran Ahmed, CEO of the US- and UK-based Center for Countering Digital Hate, which provided its research exclusively to the Guardian. They are actually selling the right to climate deniers to spread disinformation.

A Google spokesperson didn’t dispute the center’s new findings in the Daily Wire, but said that when we find content that crosses the line from political debate or a discussion of green initiatives to promoting outright climate change denial, we remove those ads.

The Daily Wire did not respond to a list of detailed questions about its Google ad buying.

For its research, the Ahmeds organization relied on a business analytics tool called Semrush, which is used by many Fortune 500 companies and shows Google phrases and the search terms brands advertise on. Semrush also provides estimates of the dollar amounts businesses are spending on digital marketing efforts.

Based on these estimates, the researchers say the Daily Wire could have spent nearly $60 million on more than 150 Google search term ads over the past two years on various topics. These search term ads also included phrases like argument against reparations, Bill Gates’ population control, and why George Soros hates America. More than a dozen search terms were related to climate, including:

A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the cost estimate.

The center targeted the Daily Wire because it is among the most-followed publishers on Facebook, with engagement levels that at times have surpassed the combined digital reach of the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC News and CNN.

In November 2021, the Center for Countering Digital Hate named the Daily Wire in a report as one of the top ten purveyors of climate disinformation on Facebook, along with other far-right outlets such as Breitbart, Newsmax and the Western Journal. The Shapiros outlet, which had revenue of more than $100 million in 2021, was kickstarted with $4.7 million in seed funding from Texas fracking billionaire Farris Wilks.

Ben Shapiro, managing editor of the Daily Wire. Photography: Leah Hogsten/AP

In its latest research, the center said it found multiple instances of the Daily Wire promoting climate crisis denial through its Google ads. When people Googled the phrase climate change debunk in April 2022, one of the best results they showed was an article written by Shapiro titled Debunking Climate Change Hysteria.

You’ve heard that climate change will end all life on Earth; which puts civilization in existential danger, Shapiro argued in the article. These are lies.

Another Daily Wire ad last summer linked the search phrase climate change a hoax along with deliberately misspelled phrases like global warming hoax and climate change hiax to the article 9 things you need to know about the 2016 climate change hoax, in which Aaron Bandler falsely claimed that there is no evidence that the Earth has warmed in recent years.

In accordance with our climate change denial content policy, Google ads are not displayed on this page, nor is this page promoted in Google Ads, Google said in connection with this specific article.

But Google’s policies allow for some leeway. We will also continue to allow advertising and monetization on other climate-related topics, including public debates on climate policy, the various impacts of climate change, new research and more, its policy states.

Last July, the Daily Wire paid Google to promote its story Wind turbines not only tear birds apart, they pile up in landfills every time someone searches for the truth about wind turbines.

The Shapiros outlet promoted discredited theories on a wide range of topics, including buying an ad last July on the search term george floyd cause of death that linked to a Daily Wire article claiming that it was likely a fentanyl overdose, not police violence, that killed George Floyd in 2020. A recent Reuters fact check found no evidence for this claim.

But at Google, you don’t need to be actually fair to shape people’s opinions, the disinformation group pointed out. Ninety-nine percent of Google’s clicks go to first page results, Ahmed said. If you can be the first result on a Google search, essentially you can set the truth.

Daily Wires’ climate announcements are especially egregious according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate because Google publicly bills itself as having one of the most aggressive sustainability plans of any major tech company.

It promises to achieve net zero carbon emissions in its operations by 2030, a decade ahead of Amazon. Last year, the company partnered with the United Nations to provide people with brief, easy-to-understand information panels and images about the causes and effects of climate change when they Google the topic.

However, in a report last year the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that major climate polluters such as BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell were buying ads on Google searches like net-zero and eco-friendly, giving the impression that these companies were helping to solve the climate crisis instead of being the main contributors.

Ahmed said the Daily Wire’s ad buys appear to be a direct contradiction of Google’s own promises to promote reliable information on the climate crisis: Google has rules against using their search ads to spread disinformation, they should enforce them, even against the people who give them lots of money.

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