Google has banned conservative website ZeroHedge from its advertising platform over policy violations on race-related content. According to Fox News, a Google spokesperson confirmed in an email sent on Tuesday, June 16, that the tech giant took action after determining violations of the -right website that often publishes conspiracy theories. ZeroHedge was notified last week about the violations before the ban took effect on Tuesday.
Google also issued a warning to another conservative website The Federalist over comments on articles related to Black Lives Matter protests and it has three days to remove the violations before proceeding with a ban.
"We have strict publisher policies that govern the content ads can run on and explicitly prohibit derogatory content that promotes hatred, intolerance, violence, or discrimination based on race from monetizing," said the spokesperson as reported in NBCN. He further said that they take action when a page or site that violates their policies, so they have demonetized both sites.
Google policies vs ZeroHedge and Federalist ads
Google acted on the matter after it was notified by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a British nonprofit that combats online hate and misinformation. The study found 10 U.S-based websites that published some "racist articles" about the BLM protests while gaining millions of dollars through Google Ads.
Center for Countering Digital Hate CEO Imran Ahmed said it found advertisements from many companies promoting some racist statements and content on their websites.
"We found that lots of those companies are inadvertently funding through their advertising content that is outright racist," Ahmed said. He added that these articles are either an outright defense of white supremacism or include conspiracy theories about George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.
In the past, Google also banned various websites to prevent the spread of fake news. Meanwhile, both The Federalist and ZeroHedge have not provided comments.
Black Lives Matter corporate support
ZeroHedge and The Federalist are known for publishing far-right content about various topics. Recently, the former published an article claiming that the recent protests were sham, while the latter claimed the media were lying about the looting and violence that happened during the protests. Both articles were included in the research furnished to Google.
Numerous corporations have eagerly backed the Black Lives Matter protests that have been happening since early this month. This includes Google's pledge of $12 million in funding to "organizations working to address racial inequities."
Other websites continue to generate revenue through Google, which is raising concerns for civil rights advocates. The Center for Countering Digital Hate said other far-right websites carried advertisements by well-known brands while disseminating false narratives about the protest movement.
Also, this trend raises significant risks for brand security. Caroline McCarthy, communications and content vice president of digital advertising company TrueX, said Google and other digital advertising companies should be held responsible for their ads.
"[They] have to start by asking questions," said McCarthy adding that companies should know which their brand content will be running against. If the other person the other side cannot answer directly, "then that's a problem."
The executive added that the "pressure on the tech companies is only going to come from dollars" that will be withdrawn.
