YouTube Targets Climate Change Deniers As Part Of Wider Crackdown

While climate change denial videos can remain on YouTube, they'll no longer rake in advertisement dollars. The company has announced plans to strip ads from climate change denial videos amid a larger crackdown on misinformation. The decision appears to have been largely driven by YouTube's partners that don't want their products appearing alongside these videos.

The decision appears to have been largely driven by YouTube's partners that don't want their products appearing alongside these videos. As such, Google is updating its monetization policy to block ads on climate change denial videos, including content that denies the science behind climate change, calls it a hoax, or denies the role of humans in the warming of our planet.

YouTube says it won't remove advertisements from videos that discuss climate change denial claims from a standpoint of, for example, dissecting why they are incorrect or why people fall for related scams. Rather, this change will apply to videos that present climate change misinformation as if it were a fact.

Other types of climate-related videos will still get advertisements, as well, including debates on climate policies, research related to the topic, and similar. Human reviews will join YouTube's automated tools to decide which videos present ads and which will be blocked from monetization.

The new ad policy will go live in November. This advertisement change follows YouTube's recent decision to ban videos that spread vaccine misinformation, including claims that vaccines result in chronic health issues or that they fail to protect recipients from disease.