Advertisers faked out by faux news
NEW YORK — Wittingly or not, major corporations are helping fund sites that traffic in fake news by advertising on them.
Take, for instance, a story that falsely claimed former President Obama had banned Christmas cards to overseas military personnel. Despite debunking by The Associated Press and other fact-checking outlets, that article lives on at “Fox News The FB Page,” which has no connection to the news channel although its bears a replica of its logo.
Until recently, the story was often flanked by ads from big brands such as insurer Geico, the businessnews outlet Financial Times, and beauty products maker Revlon. It’s not an isolated case, although major companies generally say they have no intention of bankrolling purveyors of fake news with their ad dollars. Because many of their ads are placed on websites by computer algorithms, it’s not always easy for companies to steer them away from sites they find objectionable.
Google, the biggest player in the digital ad market, places many of these ads. The company says it bars ads on its network from appearing against “misrepresentative content” — its term for fake news — yet Google spokeswoman Andrea Faville acknowledged that the company had sold ads on the site with the Christmas card story. Those ads vanished after The Associated Press inquired about them. Faville declined to comment on their disappearance.
A Financial Times spokeswoman said in an emailed statement that the company was “frustrated” to learn its ads appeared next to fake news like the Christmas card story, saying the situation underscored the “very real risk” of using automated ads.
“We think the ad technology ecosystem could, and should, do more to improve brand safety,” she said.