Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – YouTube earns millions of dollars a year from advertising on channels that spread disinformation about climate change 'doomsday'. This happens because content creators use new tactics to circumvent platform policies regarding misinformation.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) used artificial intelligence (AI) to review the transcripts of 12,058 videos from the last six years on YouTube.
These channels promote content that undermines the scientific consensus on climate change, where human behavior contributes to long-term changes in temperatures and weather patterns.
CCDH, a non-profit organization that monitors online hate speech, said its analysis found content about the 'doomsday' to be a false claim that global warming is not happening or is not caused by greenhouse gases produced from burning fossil fuels.
Even though according to Google policy, videos that support these claims are explicitly prohibited from generating advertising revenue on YouTube.
In contrast, the report found that last year 70% of climate denial content on the channels analyzed focused on attacks on climate solutions. This content calls climate solutions irrelevant and unworkable.
They portray global warming as harmless or even beneficial, or regard climate science and the environmental movement as unreliable. Videos with narratives like this are up 35% from the previous five years.
“A new front has opened in this battle,” said Imran Ahmed, chief executive of CCDH, quoted by Reuters, Wednesday (17/1/2024).
“The people we've looked at, they've gone from saying that climate change isn't happening, to now saying, 'Hey, climate change is happening but there's no hope. There's no solution.'” he added.
YouTube earns up to US$13.4 million (Rp. 209 billion) per year from advertising on the channels the report analyzed. The researchers said the AI model was created to be able to distinguish between reasonable skepticism and false information.
In its statement, YouTube did not comment directly on the report but defended its policy.
“Debate or discussion on the topic of climate change, including around public policy or research, is permitted,” a YouTube spokesperson said. “However, when content crossed the line into denial of climate change, we stopped showing ads on those videos.”
CCDH called on YouTube to update its policies on climate change denial content and said the analysis could help the environmental movement fight false claims about global warming more broadly.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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