Google Bans Ads On The Federalist After NBC News Raises Concerns About George Floyd Protest Articles
Google will no longer run ads on The Federalist and Zero Hedge after NBC News raised concerns to the tech giant about articles that the conservative websites published regarding rioting and looting that occurred alongside the protests over the death of George Floyd.
According to the NBC report, Google banned the websites from its advertising platform, Google Ads, after the NBC News Verification Unit notified the tech giant of a report from a British think tank that accused them of running insensitive content related to the protests over Floyd’s death.
NBC News, which cited a report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said that the offending article from The Federalist had claimed “the media had been lying about looting and violence during the protests.”
A spokesperson for Google said that the websites would be taken off of the Google Ads platform after determining that the articles violated the company’s polices on race-related content.
“We have strict publisher policies that govern the content ads can run on and explicitly prohibit derogatory content that promotes hatred, intolerance, violence or discrimination based on race from monetizing,” the Google spokesperson said. “When a page or site violates our policies, we take action. In this case, we’ve removed both sites’ ability to monetize with Google.”
The NBC News story does not link to the allegedly inflammatory Federalist article. But the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s offshoot group, “Stop Funding Fake News,” included a June 3 article from The Federalist entitled “The Media Are Lying To You About Everything, Including The Riots.”
The article, by Federalist political editor John Daniel Davidson, disputed a popular claim by the media that white supremacist groups were behind much of the violence that occurred during the Floyd protests.
The NBC News reporter who published the story thanked the Center for Countering Digital Hate for their “collaboration” on the story.
NEW — from @NBC_VC. Thanks to @SFFakeNews and @CCDHate for their hard work and collaboration! #BlackLivesMatter https://t.co/dorhdZy1t1
— Adele-Momoko Fraser (@AMFraserNBC) June 16, 2020
NBC News did not respond to a request for comment about the reporter’s comments.
Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton blasted Google’s decision in response to the NBC News story.
The @FDRLST correctly pointed out media misinformation about the looting and damage from the riots.
In return, Google is banning The @FDRLST.
This is blatant discrimination against conservatives. https://t.co/znUrAxrZrp pic.twitter.com/TMNbzJWAxn
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) June 16, 2020
Cotton was at the center of controversy last week after The New York Times apologized for publishing an op-ed from the Republican calling for deploying the national guard to combat looting and riots that occurred during otherwise peaceful protests over George Floyd’s death.
While Cotton differentiated in his article between peaceful protesters and violent rioters, a group of New York Times staffers complained that the op-ed endangered the newspaper’s black employees.
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