The Google logo outside the New York City offices, which closed on May 19, 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Ben Gabbe / Getty Images
Google is once again allowing the financial website Zero Hedge to make money using Google’s advertising platform.
In mid-June, Google told CNBC that it had banned Zero Hedge from using its ad platform due to the comments section of the site, which Google said was constantly violating its policy against dangerous and derogatory material. Zero Hedge removed the content and implemented moderation in the comment section, then appealed Google’s move.
On Tuesday, Google said its team had re-checked the site, confirmed that the material had been removed, and began allowing it to start running ads again on June 21. CNBC verified that the ads were running through Google on the site as of Tuesday.
“We work with publishers to keep them up to date on our monetization policies, which cover user feedback on the sites, and offer guidance on how to address policy violations if they wish to be reinstated,” a Google spokesperson said in a release. “We have policies like these for many reasons, including to ensure that companies that advertise with us are confident that their ads are not run against dangerous, derogatory or hateful content.”
In mid-June, NBC News reported that Google had also warned conservative publication The Federalist about the content in its comment section and gave it a chance to address the issues to avoid removing its ad platform. The federalist said last month that he had removed his comment section. At the time, federalist co-founder Sean Davis called the matter “a rather frightening example of the power it has of the ungodly union of corrupt media and monopolistic tech oligarchs.”
Zero Hedge did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.
Earlier this year, Twitter banned the Zero Hedge account from the social media platform after posting an article linking a Chinese scientist to the rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak last week, saying the account had violated “policy rig manipulation. ” The account was reinstated in June, and Twitter called the deletion a mistake.
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