There is no doubt in my mind that this would be a major scandal if the Trump campaign were involved. Could you imagine the screams of "disinformation" and threatened lawsuits from press organizations?
"The Kamala Harris campaign has been editing press headlines and putting the fake versions in ads as a way to spread disinformation. That's according to a new report that found multiple instances of Google ads being manipulated without the consent of the various news organizations linked to the false headlines."
The Harris campaign has been editing news headlines and descriptions within Google search ads that make it appear as if the Guardian, Reuters, CBS News and other major publishers are on her side, Axios has found.
Why it matters: It's a common practice in the commercial advertising world that doesn't violate Google's policies, but the ads mimic real news results from Search closely enough that they have news outlets caught off guard.
- According to Google's ad transparency center, the Trump campaign isn't running these types of ads, but this technique has been used by campaigns before.
- The ads say that they are sponsored, but it's not immediately clear that the text that accompanies real news links is written by the campaigns and not by the media publication itself.
"In true Axios fashion, the outlet tries to downplay what's occurring, calling it a "common practice in commercial advertising." I'm skeptical that's true. While it may be more common in a non-political context, I've never seen this happen in the political world. That's not to say that some ads haven't taken headlines out of context, but to actually change them and then stick them on Google as if they were real seems like a bridge too far. Yes, there's the "Sponsored" tag attached, but that doesn't immediately indicate to the average user they are fake." . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment