Is Google Unwittingly Funding Disinformation From Russian Websites? At a time when the war in Ukraine has made the spread of false information a serious problem, Gafam (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft) has been rushing to act since the beginning of the conflict to impose sanctions on Moscow and prevent the spread of false information aimed at propaganda of the Russian government. . As a result, Google and Facebook announced they were suspending the ability for Russian state media to monetize their content through ads. For its part, Apple said it would stop exporting to Russia and removed Russian state media apps RT and Sputnik from the App Store.
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However, a report published on Monday, March 7 by NewsGuard (which analyzes the credibility and transparency of news sites) warns of Google funding sites that spread false information about the war in Ukraine. Among the 116 sites identified by the organization as engaging in disinformation, more than twenty will continue to generate revenue from ads distributed by the American giant. Thus, while NewsGuard notes the disappearance of Google ads on RT and Sputnik, the organization also claims that several sites that are part of the “large ecosystem of Russian disinformation,” and some of them with hidden links to the Kremlin, continue to be heavily supported by Google ads. .
As an example, the organization cites the case of Pravda.ru, the electronic version of a well-known Russian newspaper now run by Vladimir Putin. Above articles on the site calling the Ukrainian state “illegal” and members of the Ukrainian government “neo-Nazis” is a large Google Ads banner showing targeted ads. The media have been identified by the organization for several years as spreading false pro-Kremlin information.
The report points out that these ads are placed by algorithms and are therefore not voluntarily funded by Google. But the document highlights the contradiction between the presence of these advertisements and the rules that are supposed to be imposed on publishers by the American firm. It states that the platform will not advertise on sites that contain “inaccurate and dangerous statements, including content containing false statements that could significantly undermine participation or confidence in the electoral process or democracy.” Therefore, according to the organization, “the presence of programmatic advertising on sites such as Pravda and dozens of other sites identified by NewsGuard as part of this analysis suggests that the measures taken to enforce these policies by platforms such as Google are not were effective or were not provided.
More generally, the report recalls that disinformation is not limited to that disseminated by certain States. Thus, he argues that during the Covid-19 pandemic, 4,000 brand ads were forced to fund sites (mostly private) promoting information about Covid-19. Every year, nearly $2.6 billion (€2.38 billion) in ad revenue goes into the pockets of misinformation sites, according to NewsGuard.