We have some big news to share: Teads dropped Townhall from their inventory after our email campaign. You were heard! Climate Week was a success. We sent a clear message to ad exchanges: climate change denial is disinformation. And we expect them to enforce their rules. Index Exchange, Criteo, Xandr, and Google also heard from us about how they're violating their own goals, efforts, and standards by sending money to Townhall. If you missed out on any of the campaigns, it's not too late! The links in the names above go to their respective email campaigns. For too long, ad exchanges let climate change disinfo slide while taking action on other content like COVID disinformation and 2020 election lies, even though the climate crisis is an imminent threat. They know it's a problem — that's why they already have policies against it — but they're not enforcing them. That's where we come in. Climate Week has ended, but our vigilance hasn't. Jordan Peterson's lining his suit pockets with climate denial Speaking of Google, there's another way it's helping spread climate disinformation: By letting psychologist and cultural commentator Jordan Peterson profit off it. We broke it all down this weekend, but the short of it is that Peterson is producing climate-change-denying videos, monetizing them on YouTube, and raking in advertiser dollars. He's doing so despite Google's policy, announced in 2021, that prohibits YouTube creators from monetizing content that “contradicts well-established scientific consensus” around climate change. If you're an advertiser who doesn't want your videos showing up next to climate change denial, you can learn how to block his channels at the end of the article. Yes, channels. Like many grifters, he has multiple channels in case one is demonetized or banned. X gon' give it to 'em (where “X” is advertiser dollars and “'em” is the platform's most toxic users) Peterson's not the only person working to profit off of spreading disinformation. X's Ad Revenue Sharing program has some of its most toxic users working out how to game the system for bigger paychecks from Elon Musk. It's the Wild West, with ads being served up under posts spewing lies about the cause of the Maui wildfires. Users like AlphaFox78 are working to hit the sweet spot where they get both engagement and a cut of advertising revenue. “It’s very convoluted and no clear rules,” they said. Some of the AlphaFox’s content with the most views is about celebrating “white pride,” transphobia, being “anti-woke,” burning the Pride flag, and driving through protesters. AlphaFox78 said they didn’t “want to share my info on amounts” as it “makes people jealous,” but claimed that 10 million impressions earn them roughly $2,500 as a member of X’s Creator Ads Revenue Sharing system. We'll have more on advertising and X later. 👀 Hugs, Claire & Nandini |
