Action: Email Teads about Townhall.com

Climate Week action, day 2

Hey team,

Climate Week continues! Every day through Friday, we're sending you the contact information for an ad network that's helping fund Townhall.com, a top climate change disinformation outlet. We need to email the ad companies and let them know what they're funding. Let's ask them to review these accounts according to their own supply policies. (Read more about the overall effort in this week's BRANDED.)

Today's action target: Teads

“The most important thing publishers can do in the fight for sustainability is make sure that they are not perpetuating climate misinformation,” wrote Teads director of sustainability Benjamin Davy. Teads also says it vets publishers to “combat disinformation and hate speech” and enables brands to avoid “willful misinformation.”

And yet Teads is still sending money to Townhall. Let's (politely) remind them of their own words and commitments with the email template below.

We're trying something new this time: Click here to open an email with everything pre-filled, just add your name to the bottom. Let us know if it works for you — unfortunately, it won't work for everyone.

If that didn't work, or you'd like to do it manually, copy and paste the below to their respective fields:

TO:

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

SUBJECT:

Do you know you're funding climate disinformation?

BODY:

Hello,

I'm reaching out to find out if Teads plans to continue placing ads on Townhall.com, despite the site running flagrantly afoul of your company's stated goals and aspirations.

“The most important thing publishers can do in the fight for sustainability is make sure that they are not perpetuating climate misinformation,” wrote your director of sustainability Benjamin Davy. You also say you vet publishers to “combat disinformation and hate speech” and enables brands to avoid “willful misinformation.”

Maybe you're not aware, but Townhall.com publishes tons of columnists with far-out views. Many of them are climate deniers — 46 of them are listed in climate watchdog DeSmog’s disinformation database.

You also probably didn't know that a Center for Countering Digital Hate report found the site is in the top tier among 10 fringe publishers responsible for nearly 70% of Facebook user interactions with denying climate change.

But you are connecting Townhall.com to the advertising supply chain, enabling the spread of its climate disinformation. And Townhall Media isn't just one site, it’s part of a sprawling networking of hate speech and disinformation websites, including:

• Bearing Arms
• Hot Air
• Instapundit
• PJ Media
• RedState
• Twitchy

If you plan to continue funding climate disinformation, you can ignore this email. But if you'd rather NOT fund it, consider dropping Townhall's seller ID, 11503.

Thank you,

[Your Name]

Please let us know if you hear back from them! They will be reading your emails and figuring out what the hell to do about all this.

Hugs,

Claire and Nandini