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Forbes
Forbes
Technology
Kenneth Corbin, Contributor

Lawmaker Wants To Know Why Climate Misinformation Is Rampant On YouTube

The head of a House committee on climate change wants to know why videos espousing climate misinformation are pervasive on Google’s YouTube, and indeed seem to be promoted by the company’s recommendation algorithm.

In a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) pointedly asks why a company that has been outspoken in its support of policies to combat climate change seemingly continues to allow its hugely popular video platform to serve as a forum for material that casts doubt on settled science and the urgency of the problem.

“YouTube has been driving millions of viewers to climate misinformation videos every day, a shocking revelation that runs contrary to Google’s important missions of fighting misinformation and promoting climate action,” wrote Castor, who chairs the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

She is asking Pichai to respond to a series of questions by Feb. 7, calling on the company to commit to removing climate denial and disinformation videos from its algorithm, to stop selling ads around those videos, to add “climate misinformation” to the list of “borderline content” that YouTube maintains, and to engage in an outreach program “to correct the record for millions of users who have been exposed to climate misinformation on YouTube.

Castor’s letter follows from a report from the nonprofit group Avaaz, which analyzed climate misinformation videos on YouTube and concluded that they were rampant and being promoted by the site’s algorithm.

“These climate misinformation videos aren’t just being uploaded to YouTube and organically seen by interested audiences,” the Avaaz report concluded. “Instead, YouTube’s recommendation algorithm is giving these videos free promotion and showing misinformation to millions who wouldn’t have been exposed to it otherwise.”

A spokeswoman for YouTube declined to comment specifically on how the company will respond to Castor’s letter, but provided a statement addressing the Avaaz report:

“We can’t speak to Avaaz’s methodology or results, and our recommendations systems are not designed to filter or demote videos or channels based on specific perspectives,” YouTube said.

“YouTube has strict ad policies that govern where ads are allowed to appear and we give advertisers tools to opt out of content that doesn’t align with their brand. We’ve also significantly invested in reducing recommendations of borderline content and harmful misinformation, and raising up authoritative voices on YouTube,” the company added, noting that last year, viewership on the channels of “authoritative news publishers” increased by 60%.

“As our systems appear to have done in the majority of cases in this report, we prioritize authoritative voices for millions of news and information queries, and surface information panels on topics prone to misinformation — including climate change — to provide users with context alongside their content. We continue to expand these efforts to more topics and countries,” YouTube said.

The company further notes that under its guidelines, false information does not automatically become violative, but touts ongoing work to promote more reliable, trusted content, including some efforts to avoid recommending certain types of climate misinformation videos.

Still, to critics, Google’s operating practices fall short of the ideals it has championed on the environment and sustainability. As a corporate citizen, the company has repeatedly called attention to the urgency of the climate challenge, calling for the United States to remain in the Paris climate agreement and touting its own efforts to power sustainable data centers and purchase renewable energy.

“Google has been proactive about leading the fight against the climate crisis, displaying an important commitment to shifting the American economy toward a clean energy future,” Castor wrote, stressing the importance of the federal government collaborating with environmentally minded businesses like Google.

“That’s why I urged you to ensure that YouTube is not incentivizing climate misinformation content on its platform or effectively giving free advertising to those who seek to protect polluters and their profits at the expense of the American people,” she wrote.

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