Google helps place ads on sites amplifying Covid-19 conspiracies

Google has taken aggressive action to scrub coronavirus conspiracies from its news service and YouTube. — AFP

Google has taken aggressive action to scrub coronavirus conspiracies from its news service and YouTube, at a time when social media companies have come under intense scrutiny for their potential to spread dangerous disinformation about the global pandemic. It has begun labeling misleading videos aimed at US audiences, and has joined with other major Internet companies to coordinate a response against what the World Health Organization has described as an "infodemic”.

But Google is also placing advertisements on websites that publish the theories, helping their owners generate revenue and continue their operations. In at least one instance, Google has run ads featuring a conspiracist it has already banned.