Global Disinformation Index study: websites spreading COVID-19 misinfo will get at least $25M this year from ad platforms run by Google, Amazon, and others
Maya Tribbitt / Bloomberg : Tweets: @atbwebb Tweets: Alex Webb / @atbwebb : Perhaps the most depressing thing about this story is that it's not at all surprising. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The Global Disinformation Index has been building this case for months: its 2019 study put annual adtech spending on fact-checker-flagged misinformation sites at roughly $235M, and a June report found Google had placed ads on 84% of 49 COVID-19 disinformation sites. Today's study converts the pattern into a headline number — at least $25M flowing to COVID misinfo publishers this year from ad platforms run by Google, Amazon, and others.
First-order effects
- Misinformation publishers get direct programmatic revenue from Google and Amazon ad infrastructure, while advertisers buying those placements unknowingly fund flagged sites.
Second-order effects
- Google's position that specific sites don't violate its policy — reported when researchers found health misinfo being monetized via AdSense and DoubleClick — becomes harder to hold as the dollar totals mount, forcing a choice between stricter exclusion lists and automated-revenue volume.
Third-order effects
- The pattern persists past the pandemic: ProPublica's later analysis traced [[a:984327|Google's ad business still funneling revenue to health, election, and climate disinfo publishers across Europe, Latin America, and Africa]], pointing toward regulator attention on programmatic ad supply chains rather than publisher-by-publisher takedowns.
The trend: Programmatic advertising keeps funding misinformation faster than platform enforcement policies close the gap, making the ad supply chain itself the recurring battleground.