Israel Is Buying Google Ads to Discredit the UN’s Top Gaza Aid Agency - eviltoast
The UNRWA calls Israel’s strategy of promoting alleged misinformation “destructive.”

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@feddit.ukEnglish
    712·
    2 months ago

    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.

    • deathbird@mander.xyzEnglish
      12·
      2 months ago

      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.

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      136·
      2 months ago

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