Get the latest tech news
You Think You Know How Misinformation Spreads? Welcome to the Hellhole of Programmatic Advertising
The internet is a cesspool of misinformation, and the biggest blue-chip brands and their ad agencies are the ones funding it—by stuffing money into a Rube Goldberg machine called programmatic advertising.
A caveat: A major activity of NewsGuard has to do with selling itself as an alternative to blocking words and artificial intelligence when it comes to helping advertisers avoid having their programmatic ads run on egregious disinformation and misinformation websites, streaming television channels, or podcasts. In 2021, a French television documentary named multiple big brands—including the post office, the leading telecommunications company Orange, the government’s internal revenue service, and the retail giant Carrefour—that were helping to finance misinformation with their advertising. Many involved seem unwilling to own up to the glaring reality that the “infodemic” of misinformation and disinformation, propelled by the social media platforms’ recommendation algorithms, requires a brand safety approach that restores some degree of focus on the nature of the content the publisher is producing.
Or read this on Wired
