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Google-Owned YouTube Makes Millions From Channels Pushing Climate Disinformation: Analysis
"It's time for YouTube to step up, detox its platform, and protect the integrity of the fight against the climate crisis," said Ekō's campaign director.
Jul 28, 2023
Google-owned YouTube is again facing allegations of profiting from not enforcing its own ban on the monetization of climate misinformation, this time in a report published Friday amid legislative battles in Brazil over policies on the Amazon rainforest, Indigenous rights, and social media.
Google announced in October 2021 that for advertisers and publishers along with creators on its video platform YouTube, the company would "prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change."
For four weeks, researchers with Ekō—a group formerly known as SumOfUs that works to curb the power of big corporations—reviewed 60 YouTube videos in English and Portuguese that contained disinformation and conspiracy theories about Amazon deforestation, Indigenous rights, and the climate emergency.
Over two-thirds of the videos were monetized, and Ekō identified more than 150 brands in the ads. Using a common industry tool, researchers estimated that the channels—which collectively had over 40 million subscribers and more than 5 million views—earn $636,000 to $10.1 million a year through monetization.
"The proliferation of disinformation and conspiracy theories are helping to derail efforts by the Lula administration to advance policy agendas around Amazon protection, Indigenous land rights, and social media regulation."
"Well-known Brazilian and global brands like Lyft, Calvin Klein, Budweiser, Panasonic, and Samsung, as well as environmental and human rights groups like Friends of the Earth U.K., UNICEF, and the Peace Corps, are appearing next to extreme climate denial content and conspiracy theories," the report states, "effectively pouring money into the pockets of conspiracy theorists and climate deniers."
"Ekō researchers found top-name apparel, electronics, and drink brands appearing next to videos suggesting actor Leonardo DiCaprio funded nongovernmental organizations to commit arson in the Amazon," the publication continues. "Other false claims include that the rainforest is too humid to catch fire, and that manmade global warming is a lie."
"The proliferation of disinformation and conspiracy theories are helping to derail efforts by the Lula administration to advance policy agendas around Amazon protection, Indigenous land rights, and social media regulation," the document adds, pushing for policy "that prevents platforms from monetizing and profiting from disinformation and lies that are subverting the legislative process."
In a statement Friday, Ekō campaign director Vicky Wyatt also demanded action from the company.
"While global warming, deforestation, and wildfires reach their highest levels ever recorded, YouTube's shameless greenwashing is exposed—with the company giving profits to climate deniers to the tune of millions," said Wyatt. "This is a clear slap in the face to the brands whose advertisements unknowingly support climate disinformation. It's time for YouTube to step up, detox its platform, and protect the integrity of the fight against the climate crisis."
Ekō's analysis follows a May report from Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) for which researchers found 200 YouTube videos containing climate mis- and disinformation. The videos had a total of 73.8 million views and all had featured ads.
YouTube spokesperson Michael Aciman toldEngadget in response to those findings that the company is "constantly working" to remove content that violates its rules and welcomes third-party feedback to "help improve the accuracy of our enforcement over time."
"In 2021, we launched a new, industry-leading policy that explicitly prohibits ads from running on content promoting false claims about the existence and causes of climate change, which we designed in consultation with experts and authoritative sources on climate science," Aciman also said. "We do allow policy debate or discussions of climate-related initiatives, but when content crosses the line to climate change denial, we remove ads from serving on those videos.”
Meanwhile, Callum Hood, head of research at the Center for Countering Digital Hate, part of the CAAD coalition, said at the time that "despite Google's green grandstanding, its ads continue to fuel the climate denial industry."
"Whether it's taking cash to target users with climate disinformation, or running ads that make climate denial content profitable, the company is selling out," Hood added. "Tech companies make big promises on hate and misinformation because they know it's hard to see if they've kept them. We need to force Google to open up the black box of its advertising business."
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On Eve of Brazil's Election, Meta and TikTok Pushing 'Stop the Steal 2.0': Report
"At this point, it is safe to say that Meta has become Bolsonaro's official disinformation machine," said one activist.
Oct 29, 2022
As Brazilians prepare to vote in Sunday's decisive presidential runoff, a report published Saturday revealed that social media giants Meta--Facebook's parent company--and TikTok are driving traffic to content promoting a military coup to overthrow Brazil's democracy.
The report--entitled Stop the Steal 2.0: How Meta and TikTok Are Promoting a Coup--was published by the San Francisco-based activist group SumOfUs and asserts that "on the eve of the second vote in Brazil's most important election in decades, Meta and TikTok continue to put the integrity of the election on the line through their disastrous recommendation systems."
The publication comes ahead of Sunday's second-round contest between far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro--who has said he may not accept the outcome of the election if he loses-and former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Aggregate polling showed the two candidates in a statistical dead heat on Friday.
\u201cOur research is clear: These tech giants\u2019 algorithms are drowning users in content promoting an armed coup and laying the grounds for Stop the Steal-like repeat in Brazil.\nhttps://t.co/fDwTbSeJAY\u201d— SumOfUs (@SumOfUs) 1667046242
According to the new report:
Meta claims that Brazil is a priority region and that the company is committed to enforcing policies and practices that uphold the integrity of the vote. But not only does SumOfUs' previous research show that the platforms are awash with conspiracy theories about the election, claims of electoral fraud, and calls for a military coup, this research report sets out how Facebook's recommender systems are actively pushing users towards this content.
Far-right extremists, who are openly agitating for a military coup, are operating freely on Meta's platforms, and Meta is not only allowing them to spread their message and recruit new members, but the platform's algorithms are prioritizing anti-democratic groups, accounts, and posts. The report also looked at the role TikTok is playing in tackling the growing problem of election disinformation on its platform, and found its moderation lacking...
The findings confirm civil society organizations' worst fears, that platforms like Facebook and Instagram are enabling bad actors to organize and recruit new members, just as it did in the U.S. 2020 elections, which ended in violent insurrectionists storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.
"At this point, it is safe to say that Meta has become Bolsonaro's official disinformation machine," SumOfUs campaign director Flora Rebello Arduini said in a statement. "This is not Meta's first time wreaking havoc on democracy and Brazilians deserve better from this multi-billion dollar company."
"As this report shows," she added, "TikTok needs to up its game and not follow Meta's lead in fueling the disinformation crisis in Brazil."
On Saturday evening, SumOfUs activists projected an image of Meta co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg setting the Brazilian flag alight with the message "Meta is destroying Brazilian democracy" at Kings Cross tube station in London, just around the corner from Meta's U.K. headquarters.
\u201cHey @Meta we are just outside your headquarters asking you to do better. Protect our democracies, not your bottom line.\u201d— SumOfUs (@SumOfUs) 1667074493
The new report comes amid warnings and acts of right-wing political violence. While no motive has yet been announced, on Friday local Sao Paulo-area politician Reginaldo Camilo dos Santos, a prominent supporter of da Silva and the left-wing Workers' Party running for Congress, was assassinated in a drive-by shooting near his home in Jandira.
Agencia Publica, an independent Brazilian investigative journalism outlet, reported earlier this month that from August 16 and the end of the first round on October 2, there were at least 148 cases of electoral violence across the country.
A separate report published last week by the anti-corruption and human rights organization Global Witness revealed that YouTube approved 100% of Brazilian election misinformation ads submitted for approval, while Facebook accepted around half of such submissions.
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As Lula Leads Bolsonaro, Activists Warn of 'Blatant Disinformation' Online Before Brazil's Runoff
"What is happening in Brazil on Facebook, on YouTube, and other platforms looks awfully similar to what was happening in the U.S. around the 2020 election," said one campaigner.
Oct 25, 2022
With Brazil's Supreme Court under fire by backers of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for upholding a judge's decision allowing the removal of false election claims from online platforms ahead of next week's presidential runoff, observers warned Tuesday that the country's voters are being bombarded with misinformation that some campaigners said resembles efforts by supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump to subvert the 2020 election.
"Disinformation and hate speech online have taken over Brazilian politics, jeopardizing the integrity of the elections."
The Associated Pressreported Tuesday that social media misinformation includes claims that leftist frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva plans to shut down churches if elected and that he wants to allow men use public school restrooms next to young girls. Meanwhile, da Silva backers have falsely accused Bolsonaro of confessing to cannibalism and pedophilia.
The torrent of fake online election news spurred Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to empower Alexandre de Moraes--a Brazilian Supreme Court justice who also serves as president of the TSE--with unilateral power to compel tech companies to remove false posts. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld the move.
"What is happening in Brazil on Facebook, on YouTube, and other platforms looks awfully similar to what was happening in the U.S. around the 2020 election," Vicky Wyatt, a campaign director at the San Francisco-based activist group SumOfUs, told the Associated Press. "An individual post might not have that much reach, but cumulatively over time, having this constant drip-drip has negative consequences."
\u201cDisinformation and hate speech online have taken over Brazilian politics, jeopardizing the integrity of the elections. This is a problem for democracies around the world and few have taken such strong steps toward content moderation as Brazil. Our story: https://t.co/B1sAvMk1hI\u201d— Diane Jeantet (@Diane Jeantet) 1666729875
A report published last week by the anti-corruption and human rights organization Global Witness revealed that YouTube approved 100% of Brazilian election misinformation ads submitted for approval, while Facebook accepted around half of such submissions.
"It's frankly shocking that these massive firms, with the technological prowess they clearly have, are unable to weed out such blatant disinformation being pushed onto their users. In the case of Facebook, not once, not twice, but three times some of the same ads have been approved," Global Witness senior adviser Jon Lloyd said in a statement.
"This key vote in Brazil has been marred by a huge spike in political violence, killings, threats, and kidnappings," he added. "It's a sad reality that this tense environment has been fueled online. The issues raised here are not simply what could or might be happening--it is happening."
\u201cIt's not just @facebook. @Global_Witness tested @YouTube's ability to remove ads containing election disinformation before #Brazil's 2nd round.\n\n@YouTube approved 100% of our disinfo ads. And @Meta is STILL approving 50%\n\n#Elei\u00e7oes2022 \n\nhttps://t.co/2cdg7aZrqa\u201d— Jon Lloyd (@Jon Lloyd) 1666261196
After an unexpectedly close first-round finish that sparked widespread criticism of Brazilian presidential pollsters, the latest aggregate polling for the October 30 runoff shows da Silva with a narrow 4-point lead over Bolsonaro.
Da Silva leads Bolsonaro 50% to 43% in an IPEC poll published Monday. As Reutersnoted, "IPEC was one of several polling firms criticized for underestimating support for Bolsonaro in the first-round vote."
Bolsonaro, an open admirer of the former U.S.-backed 1964-85 military dictatorship in whose army he served as an officer, has warned he may not accept the results of the election in the likely event he loses.
On Monday, da Silva said during a press conference that if he wins the election, he hopes that Bolsonaro "will have a moment of sanity and phone me to accept the election result."
"If Bolsonaro loses and he wants to cry... I lost three elections," added the former two-term president. "Each time I lost, I went home. I didn't keep cursing, being agitated."
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