It looks as though the time for open debate on social media and video platforms — at least the Big Tech ones — is in the past.
Axios is reporting that because advertisers and content creators don’t want to have anything to do with video creators that might not wholeheartedly agree with the climate change cult, Google and YouTube made a startling announcement on Thursday.
According to Axios:
Google advertisers and publishers, as well as YouTube creators, will be prohibited from making ad revenue off content that contradicts "well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change," the company's ads team said in a statement.
- "This includes content referring to climate change as a hoax or a scam, claims denying that long-term trends show the global climate is warming, and claims denying that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to climate change.”
- Ads and monetization will still be allowed to run alongside other climate-related topics, like public debates on climate policy, impacts of climate change, and new research around the issue.
That’s right. If you’re a content creator on YouTube that might question or outright deny claims made by “the science is settled” concerning climate change crowd, you won’t be allowed to make any money on your creations.
The why, especially when it comes to reasons other publishers gave, will shed some scary light on the magnitude of this announcement.
“Advertisers simply don’t want their ads to appear next to this content,” the company’s statement read. “And publishers and creators don’t want ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos.”
So, by those publishers saying they don’t want “ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos,” they basically saying that debate concerning climate change isn’t allowed.
The argument isn't whether you believe or don't believe in climate change, particularly of the man-made variety. The argument is why should content creators keep using a highly restrictive platform like Google or YouTube when an open exchange of ideas and debate is discouraged?
Free speech be damned, I guess. Great job, Google!