Thursday, April 14, 2022

What Does It Mean to "Exploit, Dismiss, or Condone?"

I got an email from Google AdSense (which I've seldom used and haven't used for years) yesterday. A couple of relevant quotes:

"Due to the war in Ukraine, we will pause monetization of content that exploits, dismisses, or condones the war."

"This pause includes, but is not limited to, claims that imply victims are responsible for their own tragedy or similar instances of victim blaming, such as claims that Ukraine is committing genocide or deliberately attacking its own citizens."

That seems like a pretty broad demonetization.

Any mention of the war for the purpose of getting a reader's attention, generating ad revenue, etc., is "exploiting" the war.

Any expression of sentiments like "yeah, there's a war on, but we still need to discuss [insert topic other than the war]" is "dismissing" the war.

Any expression of support for e.g. providing Ukraine with weapons to continue to fight is "condoning" the war.

And there's absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the Ukrainian regime has attacked people it claims are its own citizens. But I guess we can't mention the fighting in the Donbas region both prior to and since the Russian invasion, or Zelenskyy's announced intent to enslave every Ukrainian male between the ages of 18 and 60, if we want to monetize our content through Google.

It seems to me that this policy pretty much bans Google monetization of any content relating to the war whatsoever.

Which is their choice to make, I guess, but since it's not what they really mean, I wish they'd say what they really mean. Which is: "Only content that unreservedly supports the position of the Ukrainian regime, the US regime, and NATO can be monetized."

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