Google Helps Place Ads on Sites Amplifying Covid-19 Conspiracies
One ad for telecom company O2 appeared on an article linking virus to 5G networks
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
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Google has taken aggressive action to scrub coronavirus conspiracies from its news service and YouTube, at a time when social media companies have come under intense scrutiny for their potential to spread dangerous disinformation about the global pandemic. It has begun labeling misleading videos aimed at U.S. audiences, and has joined with other major internet companies to coordinate a response against what the World Health Organization has described as an “infodemic.”