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Social Media Giants Make Billions Advertising to US Kids
"Our study suggests they have overwhelming financial incentives to continue to delay taking meaningful steps to protect children," said one Harvard researcher.
Dec 27, 2023
Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard University revealed Wednesday that social media giants made nearly $11 billion in advertising revenue from U.S.-based users younger than 18 last year.
"As concerns about youth mental health grow, more and more policymakers are trying to introduce legislation to curtail social media platform practices that may drive depression, anxiety, and disordered eating in young people," said senior author Dr. Bryn Austin, a professor and founding director of the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders.
"Although social media platforms may claim that they can self-regulate their practices to reduce the harms to young people, they have yet to do so," she continued, "and our study suggests they have overwhelming financial incentives to continue to delay taking meaningful steps to protect children."
For the study, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, the researchers focused on Google's YouTube; Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram; Snapchat; TikTok; and Twitter—which its billionaire owner, Elon Musk, recently rebranded as X.
"Our finding that social media platforms generate substantial advertising revenue from youth highlights the need for greater data transparency as well as public health interventions and government regulations."
"This is the first known study to estimate social media platform-specific advertising revenue from youth," the researchers noted. "There were several limitations to our study methods and analysis. We heavily relied upon secondary estimated and projected data, as well as the assumption that youth and adults may see a similar number of advertisements; however... social media platforms do not publicly disclose any data on user base ages, nor the advertising revenue generated from them."
To build their simulation model, the team used 2021-22 data from Common Sense Media and Pew Research surveys, the market research company eMarketer, the parental control application Qustodio, and the U.S. Census Bureau.
They found that in 2022, YouTube had 49.7 million U.S.-based users under 18, followed by TikTok (18.9 million), Snapchat (18 million), Instagram (16.7 million), Facebook (9.9 million), and X (7 million)—from which the companies collectively generated $8.6 billion in ad revenue from users ages 13-17 and another $2.1 billion from those 12 and under.
For users 13-17, Instagram led the pack with $4 billion in ad revenue, followed by TikTok ($2 billion) and YouTube ($1.2 billion). For younger children, YouTube was on top at $959.1 million, followed by Instagram ($801.1 million) and Facebook ($137.2 million).
"Our finding that social media platforms generate substantial advertising revenue from youth highlights the need for greater data transparency as well as public health interventions and government regulations," said lead author Dr. Amanda Raffoul, an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Demands for U.S. regulators and lawmakers to rein in Big Tech—particularly to protect children—have mounted in recent years. Bolstering those calls, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy in May issued an advisory calling attention to "the growing concerns about the effects of social media on youth mental health," as the White House unveiled federal actions to better serve kids online.
In October, the District of Columbia and 41 states led by both Democrats and Republicans filed a pair of federal lawsuits against Meta over features allegedly designed to keep young people hooked on the firm's platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.
The following month, in a move that Fight for the Future's Evan Greer called "absurd and dangerous," Meta sued the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) after the agency proposed an order that would prohibit the company from monetizing minors' data.
Last week, the FTC suggested significant updates to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Zamaan Qureshi of the Design It for Us coalition celebrated that "the proposed rule directly targets Big Tech's toxic business model by requiring the invasive practice of surveillance advertising to be off by default, limiting harmful nudges that keep young people coming back to the platform even when they don't want to, and including protections against the collection of biometric information."
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Google-Owned YouTube Makes Millions From Channels Pushing Climate Disinformation: Analysis
"It's time for YouTube to step up, detox its platform, and protect the integrity of the fight against the climate crisis," said Ekō's campaign director.
Jul 28, 2023
Google-owned YouTube is again facing allegations of profiting from not enforcing its own ban on the monetization of climate misinformation, this time in a report published Friday amid legislative battles in Brazil over policies on the Amazon rainforest, Indigenous rights, and social media.
Google announced in October 2021 that for advertisers and publishers along with creators on its video platform YouTube, the company would "prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change."
For four weeks, researchers with Ekō—a group formerly known as SumOfUs that works to curb the power of big corporations—reviewed 60 YouTube videos in English and Portuguese that contained disinformation and conspiracy theories about Amazon deforestation, Indigenous rights, and the climate emergency.
Over two-thirds of the videos were monetized, and Ekō identified more than 150 brands in the ads. Using a common industry tool, researchers estimated that the channels—which collectively had over 40 million subscribers and more than 5 million views—earn $636,000 to $10.1 million a year through monetization.
"The proliferation of disinformation and conspiracy theories are helping to derail efforts by the Lula administration to advance policy agendas around Amazon protection, Indigenous land rights, and social media regulation."
"Well-known Brazilian and global brands like Lyft, Calvin Klein, Budweiser, Panasonic, and Samsung, as well as environmental and human rights groups like Friends of the Earth U.K., UNICEF, and the Peace Corps, are appearing next to extreme climate denial content and conspiracy theories," the report states, "effectively pouring money into the pockets of conspiracy theorists and climate deniers."
"Ekō researchers found top-name apparel, electronics, and drink brands appearing next to videos suggesting actor Leonardo DiCaprio funded nongovernmental organizations to commit arson in the Amazon," the publication continues. "Other false claims include that the rainforest is too humid to catch fire, and that manmade global warming is a lie."
"The proliferation of disinformation and conspiracy theories are helping to derail efforts by the Lula administration to advance policy agendas around Amazon protection, Indigenous land rights, and social media regulation," the document adds, pushing for policy "that prevents platforms from monetizing and profiting from disinformation and lies that are subverting the legislative process."
In a statement Friday, Ekō campaign director Vicky Wyatt also demanded action from the company.
"While global warming, deforestation, and wildfires reach their highest levels ever recorded, YouTube's shameless greenwashing is exposed—with the company giving profits to climate deniers to the tune of millions," said Wyatt. "This is a clear slap in the face to the brands whose advertisements unknowingly support climate disinformation. It's time for YouTube to step up, detox its platform, and protect the integrity of the fight against the climate crisis."
Ekō's analysis follows a May report from Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) for which researchers found 200 YouTube videos containing climate mis- and disinformation. The videos had a total of 73.8 million views and all had featured ads.
YouTube spokesperson Michael Aciman toldEngadget in response to those findings that the company is "constantly working" to remove content that violates its rules and welcomes third-party feedback to "help improve the accuracy of our enforcement over time."
"In 2021, we launched a new, industry-leading policy that explicitly prohibits ads from running on content promoting false claims about the existence and causes of climate change, which we designed in consultation with experts and authoritative sources on climate science," Aciman also said. "We do allow policy debate or discussions of climate-related initiatives, but when content crosses the line to climate change denial, we remove ads from serving on those videos.”
Meanwhile, Callum Hood, head of research at the Center for Countering Digital Hate, part of the CAAD coalition, said at the time that "despite Google's green grandstanding, its ads continue to fuel the climate denial industry."
"Whether it's taking cash to target users with climate disinformation, or running ads that make climate denial content profitable, the company is selling out," Hood added. "Tech companies make big promises on hate and misinformation because they know it's hard to see if they've kept them. We need to force Google to open up the black box of its advertising business."
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Tech Giants 'Cashing In on Climate Delay' Fuels Demand for Tobacco-Style Ad Ban
"With vague or unenforced climate misinformation policies, platforms are profiting from activity that successfully delays the necessary action for a livable planet."
Feb 15, 2023
A report published Wednesday revealed the extent to which Big Tech platforms profit from selling advertising space to climate-wrecking oil and gas corporations, prompting calls for "tobacco-style" ad rules.
"When we think of fossil fuel advertising, we tend to focus on the big TV commercials. But really, this propaganda is playing out across social media platforms, which are cashing in on the disinformation," Fossil Free Media director Janie Henn tweeted, encouraging people to read the report from the Stop Funding Heat campaign, a United Kingdom-based project with which he is not involved.
Entitled Cashing In on Climate Delay, the report shows how Facebook, Instagram, Google, and other tech giants receive "tens of millions of dollars every year" in exchange for "greenwashing" oil and gas companies such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, and Saudi Aramco.
\u201cNEW REPORT \ud83d\udea8\u2b07\ufe0f\n\nCASHING IN ON CLIMATE DELAY \ud83d\udcb5 \ud83d\udd25 Big Tech's Role in Greenwashing the Fossil Fuel Industry\n\nGreenwashing on social media keeps us hooked on dirty energy. We are demanding change from Big Tech \u270a\n\nWatch the video \ud83d\udc47\nRead the report \ud83d\udcbbhttps://t.co/3OUm3q2BAj\u201d— StopFundingHeat (@StopFundingHeat) 1676451502
The fossil fuel industry has known for decades that its products cause planet-heating and illness-inducing pollution, and that averting the worst consequences of the climate crisis requires slashing greenhouse gas emissions by replacing coal, oil, and gas with renewable energy sources and taking other steps to decarbonize the economy, as scientists continue to warn.
For just as long, Big Oil has leveraged multimillion-dollar "information and influence campaigns" to "deny the science, deceive the public over the solutions and its role in delivering them, and delay meaningful policy on climate change," the report notes.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres recently denounced advertising firms for "raking in billions to shield the fossil fuel industry from scrutiny."
Big Tech is an overlooked piece of the "public relations machine" condemned by Guterres, according to the report, which says that online platforms "are fast becoming the dominant frontier" of fossil fuel industry greenwashing, or misleadingly portraying corporations that generate massive amounts of environmental harm as if they were benign or beneficial.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that in the wake of Big Oil's record-breaking profitmaking in 2022, BP and Shell are weakening their emission-reduction targets and planning to increase fossil fuel production.
"With vague or unenforced climate misinformation policies, platforms are profiting from activity that successfully delays the necessary action for a livable planet," says the report. In addition to "spreading organic content, platforms take money directly in order to promote fossil fuel greenwash."
While researchers were able to confirm that Facebook, Instagram, and Google collectively accept tens of millions of dollars each year to greenwash the fossil fuel industry, the report notes that the situation "could be as bad or worse" on other platforms "with little to no advertising transparency," including Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
To help combat Big Tech's lack of transparency regarding how much money platforms receive to portray oil and gas giants in a positive light, Stop Funding Heat launched "Greenwash Dog," a crowdsourced database of fossil fuel ads found on social media sites, alongside its report.
The group said that "Greenwash Dog will help expose the breadth and depth of misleading greenwashing ads from the fossil fuel industry, as well as the need for Big Tech platforms to clean up their act on this crucial issue."
"If the fossil fuel industry continues to burn fossil fuels at the current rate, it will bring harm, loss, and damages to billions worldwide, many of whom did very little to create the climate crisis," the report warns. "Yet online platforms like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok are complicit in greenwashing for the fossil fuel industry and profiting from the misinformation they continue to publish."
"Given these platforms' keenness to announce commitments to net-zero and climate change action," the authors added, "this activity stands in direct contrast."
The report makes several recommendations including:
• A "tobacco-style" ban on all advertising from fossil fuel producers;
• Opening the black box transparency on ads placed from the wider fossil fuel industry;
• Reduction of viral content pushing fossil fuels as a climate solution; and
• Health warning labels for fossil fuel content.
"At a time of growing international momentum to tackle the issue of greenwashing, online platforms must engage with the issue and introduce meaningful and comprehensive changes," says the report, "otherwise they risk being a complicit partner in delaying and derailing necessary climate action for a livable planet."
The authors called it "the job of governments, regulators, and the public to hold these platforms to account and demand that they stop spreading the misinformation of big polluters who are systemically and knowingly undermining the habitability of our planet."
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