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Israel Is Buying Google Ads to Discredit the UN’s Top Gaza Aid Agency

Back In mid-January, Mara Kronenfeld was googling the name of the nonprofit she runs, which raises money in the US on behalf of the leading humanitarian aid provider in Gaza. Atop the search results for her organization—UNRWA USA, partner to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)—she saw a surprising ad. It read like a promo from the UN agency, but the link directed to an Israeli government website. Kronenfeld says she had found the beginnings of a months-long online advertising campaign by Israel to discredit and defund UNRWA.

After seeing the ads—paid for by the Israeli Government Advertising Agency, according to details shown when clicking on the menu button beside them—Kronenfeld and her staff of seven quickly appealed to Google for help fighting what they viewed as a misinformation campaign. What has happened since shows the delicate relationship Google has kept with its advertising client, Israel, and the limits of the company’s policing of alleged misinformation in ads.

Several current and former Google employees tell WIRED the anti-UNRWA campaign is just one volley of ads that Israel has orchestrated in recent months that have drawn complaints both inside and outside of the company. The ads about UNRWA and another campaign targeting the Middle East have not been previously reported.

mannycalavera ,
@mannycalavera@feddit.uk avatar

I don’t know what is so surprising about this to people.

US company sees money on the table… takes money 💰.

This is the only transaction that is happening. Nothing else.

Linkerbaan OP ,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

Google is running a blatant disinformation campaign to manufacture consent for Genocide. That’s slightly past the point of showing off a new Ninja Airfryer.

mannycalavera ,
@mannycalavera@feddit.uk avatar

Google is running a blatant disinformation campaign to manufacture consent for Genocide.

Occam’s razor died on this day. RIP.

Linkerbaan OP ,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

After Kronenfeld and colleagues complained to Google in January about Israeli ads featuring headlines such as “UNRWA for Human Rights,” they say a company representative told them, without providing a reason, that the ads in question had been removed. Google’s Booth says there was no policy violation.

By May, per screenshots seen by WIRED, Israel was back to promoting the same content but with tweaked verbiage—“UNRWA Neutrality Compromised,” “Israel Unveils UNRWA Issues,” and “Israel Advocates for Safer, Transparent Humanitarian Practices”—that more clearly previewed what users would get if they clicked.

The revised ads, which linked to what UNRWA USA views as deeply dishonest distortions, have run across the US and Europe and continue to appear on Google as of this month despite additional UNRWA USA complaints, Kronenfeld says. She alleges these ads violate Google’s policies against “making claims that are demonstrably false and could significantly undermine participation or trust in an electoral or democratic process.” She also believes the ads go against Google’s policy barring the use of someone else’s trademarks “in a confusing, deceptive, or misleading way.”

Google denied a trademark complaint that UNRWA lodged in May on the basis that it hadn’t obtained a trademark in Jordan, where its ad account is registered, according to the agency.

mannycalavera ,
@mannycalavera@feddit.uk avatar

So what is clear is the Israel is trying to abuse the ad system to push it’s own agenda.

What’s not evidenced is that Google is “actively supporting genocide”. Please don’t confuse my hesitation on that statement to somehow supporting the horrors that Israel is meting out.

Linkerbaan OP ,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

The Hidden Ties Between Google and Amazon’s Project Nimbus and Israel’s Military

protesting Project Nimbus say it makes the companies complicit in Israel’s armed conflicts and its government’s illegal and inhumane treatment of civilian Palestinians. Google has insisted that it is not aimed at military work and is not "relevant to weapons or intelligence services,” while Amazon, seemingly, has not publicly discussed the scope of the contract.

But a WIRED review of public documents and statements by Israeli officials and Google and Amazon employees shows that the Israel Defense Forces have been central to Project Nimbus since its inception, shaping the project’s design and serving as some of its most important users. Top Israeli officials appear to think the Google and Amazon contract provides important infrastructure for the country’s military.

deathbird ,

To be fair, at least as of this moment his prior post says Google is “manufacturing consent for”, not “actively supporting”. I believe that the former can be the latter, but is not necessarily the latter.

Viking_Hippie ,

Yeah, because if they were accepting ads from the Russian government, Hamas, Hezbollah, or ISIS, nobody would bat an eye, right? 🙄

Viking_Hippie ,

What has happened since shows the delicate servile relationship Google has kept with its advertising client, the fascist apartheid state Israel

Fixed it for them.

Dariusmiles2123 ,

One more reason to try to ditch Google, Apple, Microsoft and the others…

FrenchThrowAway ,

This is why political ads should not be allowed (and why they aren’t in numerous countries)

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