Earlier today NBC released a dramatic report claiming, because of their initiative, Google demonetized two popular conservative leaning sites: The Federalist and ZeroHedge.
Google has banned two far-right websites from its advertising platform after research revealed the tech giant was profiting from articles pushing unsubstantiated claims about the Black Lives Matter protests.
The two sites, ZeroHedge and The Federalist, will no longer be able to generate revenue from any advertisements served by Google Ads.
A Google spokesperson said in an email that it took action after determining the websites violated its policies on content related to race.
The NBC reporter who filed the article wrote a surprisingly celebratory tweet. In it, she thanked two progressive organizations, including one whose founder co-authored a book about how to “defeat” conservative viewpoints.
The celebration didn’t last long, however. Just a few hours later Google Communications tweeted that The Federalist had not been demonetized.
Google’s communication team then summed up the situation by saying they consider the matter resolved and that “no action would be taken.”
The president of The Center for Countering Digital Hate (Imran Ahmed) responded to the news by retweeting a baseless accusation that Donald Trump Jr. pressured Google into reversing the decision.
Major platforms have had a history of censoring content from conservative websites and later claiming it was an error. This instance appears to be different, however, as the progressive organization (and NBC) claimed victory when they didn’t really have it.
Faithwire will continue monitoring this developing story and update as needed.