Google is prohibiting ads promoting complicity theories of coronavirus, deleting publicities from pages promoting these theories, and demonizing whole sites that often violate the policy on August 18. CNBC has reported the news earlier today and noted that the ban on monetizing harmful health misinformation is supplementary.
A Google spokesman said the new policy would cover pages which would contradict a "authoritative scientific consensus" on the pandemic of coronavirus. Google will soon do the same for false claims about their origin, while it already demonetizes false health claims.
The policy will not be applicable to pages that debunk or report on the existence of these theories and it does not apply to conspiracy theories that are not related to coronavirus.
"We are implementing additional safeguards to include harmful content on the health crisis that contradicts science," said a spokesman in The Verge, extending our policies for health claims to both publishers and advertisers.
The continuously changing information (and disinformation) landscape around the pandemic was a battle between Google and other large web platformes.
As in March, however, after complaintes from Democratic campaign organisations, this company has banned shortly all non-governmental coronavirus-related diseases. It also demonized YouTube videos on the pandemic and tackled many sensitive subjects. And, in the face of early product shortages, advertisements for sale of face masks have been temporarily banned – a policy that Facebook has also adopted.
It is not clear how much content Google's new rules are currently being violated and whether specific websites would be demonetized. For example, The Epoch Times — a journal that's widely distributed COVID-19 conspiracies — hosts Google ads today. The controversy has been generated in the past by highly profile ad removals, including a temporary demonization in his comment section of the conservative site Zero Hedge for general racism. Google last week confirmed that after changes of moderation, it has restored advertising on the site.
