Chair Castor Welcomes Google's First Step At Fighting Climate Misinformation

WASHINGTON - Chair Kathy Castor of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis released the following statement on Thursday, after Google and YouTube announced a new change in policy that will effectively ban ads and prohibit monetization of content that contradicts well-established climate science: 

"This is welcome news – and a long overdue step in the right direction," said Castor. "If we are to solve the climate crisis, we must do more to fight the misinformation that hinders climate action and endangers the health and safety of families across America.

"This is by no means the end of our fight. Once this policy goes into effect, we will be monitoring its progress and implementation, as we continue holding Google and others accountable for the lies and climate misinformation that are too often spread on their platforms."

On Thursday, Google announced that the company "will prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change. 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."

Google has long faced calls to update its policies regarding climate misinformation. In January 2020, Chair Castor sent a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai urging him to, among other things, stop monetizing videos that promote harmful misinformation and falsehoods about the causes and effects of the climate crisis.

"As we all work together to solve this crisis, we must also eliminate barriers to action, including those as pervasive and harmful as climate denial and climate misinformation," Chair Castor said in the letter.