Google is about to take one giant step into directly shaping the prevailing media narrative.
One month after Google made news by banning ads on websites – such as this one – for violating its terms of service when it comes to “derogatory” material (a purposefully amorphous concept), the world’s leading search engine and internet advertising monopoly which controls 70% of online ad spending, will take an even more aggressive step. According to CNBC, starting on August 18, Google will “ban publishers from using its ad platform next to content that promotes conspiracy theories about Covid-19.” Additionally, “in cases where a particular site publishes a certain threshold of material that violates these policies, it will ban the entire site from using its ad platforms.”
In short, anyone who deviates from the conventionally accepted narrative, or as CNBC puts it challenges the “authoritative scientific consensus” on the coronavirus pandemic will be promptly demonetized.
Hellbound and Down 