In a bid to put an end to the large amount of misinformation being spread regarding Coronavirus, American multinational technology company; Google will be banning all conspiracy ads regarding Coronavirus.
This means any adverts that “[contradict] authoritative scientific consensus”, will be stopped.
A larger impact of this move, is that applications and websites will no longer be able to make any income from carrying out or executing adverts that help promote any conspiracy theories about the Coronavirus, including any and all claims that the virus was created by the Chinese in a lab, that billionaire Bill Gates is behind the pandemic, or that it is fake.
The tech giant will also use both machine and human reviewers to flush out advertisers and publishers who violate the rules and regulations. Decisive actions will subsequently be carried out and repeat violators will banned from using Google’s advertising platform.
Reports state that the new measures will be in effective from the month of August 2020.
A spokesperson from Google made it known that the measures will further expand the tech company’s policy against ‘miracle’ health cures on the internet, ideas that promote anti-vaccination, as well health claims that are harmful.
According to the Google spokesperson; “We are putting additional safeguards in place by expanding our harmful health claims policies for both publishers and advertisers to include dangerous content about a health crisis that contradicts scientific consensus.”
In April 2020, Google stated that it will be investing 6.5 million dollars in the fight against all misinformation regarding the Covid 19 virus, to prevent said false narratives from spreading to the general public.
In a similar light, Facebook is actively exposing all myths regarding the ongoing pandemic, through its COVID-19 Information Center. Twitter will be banning all tweets that support or propagate any misinformation or claims of false cures. Apple has also taken steps to fight Coronavirus misinformation and rejects all mobile applications having to do with the virus, but are not from any official health organizations.
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