自从去年夏天“罗诉韦德案”被推翻以来,寻找堕胎服务的女性经历了一段紧张的时期,尤其是在规定堕胎构成刑事犯罪的14个州,或者限制堕胎的另外6个州。更糟糕的是,许多女性在谷歌(Google)上搜索堕胎服务提供商时,经常看到的是虚假诊所的广告,这些虚假诊所号称提供堕胎服务,最终目的却是试图劝说人们放弃堕胎。谷歌从中牟利数百万美元,但毫不夸张地说,女性在搜索可靠的健康服务时经常被误导。
致力于反对网络仇恨和虚假信息的非盈利组织反数字仇恨中心(Center for Countering Digital Hate)上周四发布的最新报告显示,反堕胎群体是谷歌上出现欺骗性堕胎服务广告的幕后推手。
反数字仇恨中心CEO伊姆兰·艾哈迈德在报告中表示:“谷歌积极参与并支持虚假诊所产业,从反自由堕胎游说中获利,甚至提供补贴。谷歌是规模达数百万美元的虚假诊所产业的关键,这些诊所在时刻利用欺骗性手段,剥夺美国人获取医疗援助的机会。”
反数字仇恨中心发现,这些虚假诊所通常被称为“危机妊娠中心”,在美国各地如雨后春笋般快速增多,过去两年它们在搜索广告方面投入了1,020万美元。其中有超过70%的虚假诊所误导性地号称提供堕胎服务,约有40%宣传堕胎药逆转,即所谓逆转堕胎的一种方法,但没有科学依据。
这些反堕胎群体投放的欺骗性广告,经常会在用户搜索堕胎诊所时弹出,干扰女性寻求医疗支持。反数字仇恨中心发现,有多达15,000个搜索关键词,如“堕胎药”、“我附近的堕胎诊所”或“计划生育”等,会在结果中出现虚假诊所。这些诊所会通过某种方式,在搜索结果中公然违反谷歌当前有关堕胎诊所的政策,想方设法影响到脆弱的用户。
在被问到对此事的看法时,谷歌并未否认平台上出现了这些广告,但谷歌提到了其指导原则。
谷歌发言人在一份声明中对《财富》杂志表示:“我们要求任何向搜索堕胎服务信息的用户投放广告的组织,必须经过认证,并明确披露其是否提供堕胎服务。我们不允许任何宣传堕胎逆转治疗的广告,并且禁止广告商对他们所提供的服务误导用户。我们会移除或屏蔽违反这些政策的广告。我们深知,人们在这种对自身非常重要的时刻,希望在谷歌找到他们可以信任的信息,并且我们致力于保证有关堕胎话题的广告是清晰的并且容易理解。”
谷歌表示,如果是普通的搜索词条,并且没有指明用户正在搜索堕胎服务,广告中有时候可能不会显示与广告商提供的服务有关的披露信息。但位于加州山景城的谷歌表示,公司“对广告商进行了审查”,并对违反堕胎逆转内容政策的广告商采取了“强制措施”。
这并非该搜索引擎第一次因为其与危机妊娠中心有关的政策而遭到抨击。去年8月,彭博社报道称,谷歌地图(Google Maps)搜索会误导寻找堕胎服务的用户,引导用户前往危机妊娠中心。
芝加哥计划生育协会(Family Planning Associates)医疗总监艾利森·考维特对彭博社表示:“如果谷歌是一家支持科学的组织,或者仅持中立的态度,他们就不会希望引导用户前往那些投放虚假广告并且可能危害用户生命的地方。”
去年,《财富》杂志报道称,在有充足资金支持的环境下出现了大量危机妊娠中心,其数量与美国堕胎诊所的比例达到了3∶1。
虽然谷歌表示,其会经常审查和更新与堕胎广告相关的政策,但显然有许多漏网之鱼,误导了用户。
在线营销平台Semrush称,谷歌在美国有2.46亿独立用户。多年来,在搜索包括医疗等各种信息的用户当中,谷歌树立了可信平台的信誉。寻找堕胎相关服务的女性也选择了谷歌平台,认为它能提供可靠的信息。
反数字仇恨中心的报告称:“这表示谷歌没有坚持诚信对待用户,未能保护用户免受伤害。”(财富中文网)
翻译:刘进龙
审校:汪皓
自从去年夏天“罗诉韦德案”被推翻以来,寻找堕胎服务的女性经历了一段紧张的时期,尤其是在规定堕胎构成刑事犯罪的14个州,或者限制堕胎的另外6个州。更糟糕的是,许多女性在谷歌(Google)上搜索堕胎服务提供商时,经常看到的是虚假诊所的广告,这些虚假诊所号称提供堕胎服务,最终目的却是试图劝说人们放弃堕胎。谷歌从中牟利数百万美元,但毫不夸张地说,女性在搜索可靠的健康服务时经常被误导。
致力于反对网络仇恨和虚假信息的非盈利组织反数字仇恨中心(Center for Countering Digital Hate)上周四发布的最新报告显示,反堕胎群体是谷歌上出现欺骗性堕胎服务广告的幕后推手。
反数字仇恨中心CEO伊姆兰·艾哈迈德在报告中表示:“谷歌积极参与并支持虚假诊所产业,从反自由堕胎游说中获利,甚至提供补贴。谷歌是规模达数百万美元的虚假诊所产业的关键,这些诊所在时刻利用欺骗性手段,剥夺美国人获取医疗援助的机会。”
反数字仇恨中心发现,这些虚假诊所通常被称为“危机妊娠中心”,在美国各地如雨后春笋般快速增多,过去两年它们在搜索广告方面投入了1,020万美元。其中有超过70%的虚假诊所误导性地号称提供堕胎服务,约有40%宣传堕胎药逆转,即所谓逆转堕胎的一种方法,但没有科学依据。
这些反堕胎群体投放的欺骗性广告,经常会在用户搜索堕胎诊所时弹出,干扰女性寻求医疗支持。反数字仇恨中心发现,有多达15,000个搜索关键词,如“堕胎药”、“我附近的堕胎诊所”或“计划生育”等,会在结果中出现虚假诊所。这些诊所会通过某种方式,在搜索结果中公然违反谷歌当前有关堕胎诊所的政策,想方设法影响到脆弱的用户。
在被问到对此事的看法时,谷歌并未否认平台上出现了这些广告,但谷歌提到了其指导原则。
谷歌发言人在一份声明中对《财富》杂志表示:“我们要求任何向搜索堕胎服务信息的用户投放广告的组织,必须经过认证,并明确披露其是否提供堕胎服务。我们不允许任何宣传堕胎逆转治疗的广告,并且禁止广告商对他们所提供的服务误导用户。我们会移除或屏蔽违反这些政策的广告。我们深知,人们在这种对自身非常重要的时刻,希望在谷歌找到他们可以信任的信息,并且我们致力于保证有关堕胎话题的广告是清晰的并且容易理解。”
谷歌表示,如果是普通的搜索词条,并且没有指明用户正在搜索堕胎服务,广告中有时候可能不会显示与广告商提供的服务有关的披露信息。但位于加州山景城的谷歌表示,公司“对广告商进行了审查”,并对违反堕胎逆转内容政策的广告商采取了“强制措施”。
这并非该搜索引擎第一次因为其与危机妊娠中心有关的政策而遭到抨击。去年8月,彭博社报道称,谷歌地图(Google Maps)搜索会误导寻找堕胎服务的用户,引导用户前往危机妊娠中心。
芝加哥计划生育协会(Family Planning Associates)医疗总监艾利森·考维特对彭博社表示:“如果谷歌是一家支持科学的组织,或者仅持中立的态度,他们就不会希望引导用户前往那些投放虚假广告并且可能危害用户生命的地方。”
去年,《财富》杂志报道称,在有充足资金支持的环境下出现了大量危机妊娠中心,其数量与美国堕胎诊所的比例达到了3∶1。
虽然谷歌表示,其会经常审查和更新与堕胎广告相关的政策,但显然有许多漏网之鱼,误导了用户。
在线营销平台Semrush称,谷歌在美国有2.46亿独立用户。多年来,在搜索包括医疗等各种信息的用户当中,谷歌树立了可信平台的信誉。寻找堕胎相关服务的女性也选择了谷歌平台,认为它能提供可靠的信息。
反数字仇恨中心的报告称:“这表示谷歌没有坚持诚信对待用户,未能保护用户免受伤害。”(财富中文网)
翻译:刘进龙
审校:汪皓
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned last summer, it’s been a tense period for women seeking abortion services, especially in the 14 states that have criminalized it or the other six with restrictions on when the procedure can be done. As if that wasn’t enough, though, many women turning to Google to find information about abortion providers are being shown ads that point them to fake clinics that pretend to offer such services but ultimately try to persuade people against abortions. Google is making millions from the exercise and women are often misled, to say the least, in their search for reliable health services.
Pro-life groups are pushing out these deceptive advertisements for those seeking abortion services on Google’s platform, according to a new report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a non-profit group focussing on online hate and misinformation, published Thursday.
“Google is a willing participant and supporter of the fake clinic industry, profiting from – and even subsidizing – the anti-choice lobby’s campaigns,” CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed said in the report. “It is the lynchpin of a multi-million dollar fake clinic industry that works around the clock to deprive Americans of medical assistance by deceptive means.”
The fake clinics, often called crisis pregnancy centers, have proliferated around the U.S. and have spent $10.2 million on search ads in the last two years, CCDH found. Of those clinics, over 70% offer misleading claims about abortion while about 40% of them promoted abortion pill reversal—a method to supposedly reverse an abortion that isn’t backed by science.
The deceptive ads boosted by these pro-life groups often pop up in the search about abortion clinics, side-tracking women seeking medical support. CCDH found a family of 15,000 search queries—such as “abortion pill,” “abortion clinic near me” or “planned parenthood”—for which the fake clinics showed up as results. And somehow, those clinics have defied Google’s existing policies governing abortion clinics in search results and manage to reach vulnerable users.
When reached for comment, Google did not deny that these ads have appeared on its platform, but it laid out its guidelines.
“We require any organization that wants to advertise to people seeking information about abortion services to be certified and clearly disclose whether they do or do not offer abortions. We do not allow ads promoting abortion reversal treatments and we also prohibit advertisers from misleading people about the services they offer,” Google’s spokesperson told Fortune in a statement. “We remove or block ads that violate these policies. We know that people come to Google looking for information they can trust during deeply personal moments and are committed to ensuring advertisements on this topic are clear and easily understood.”
If a search query is general and doesn’t indicate that a person is looking for abortion services, ads may sometimes fail to show disclosures regarding the services offered, according to Google. But the Mountain View, Calif.-based company said it “reviewed the advertisers” and has taken “enforcement action” against those violating its content policies regarding abortion reversal.
This isn’t the first time the search giant has come under fire for its policies with respect to CPCs. In August, Bloomberg reported that Google Maps queries had misled users looking for abortion services by pointing them in the direction of CPCs.
“If Google is a pro-science organization, or even just neutral, they would not want to lead people to these places with false advertising that can be harmful to their lives,” Allison Cowett, the medical director of Chicago-based Family Planning Associates, told Bloomberg.
Last year, Fortune reported that CPCs were thriving in a well-funded environment and had outnumbered abortion clinics by a ratio of three-to-one across the U.S.
And while Google says it is frequently reviewing and updating its policies surrounding abortion-related ads, many are clearly falling through the cracks and guiding people in the wrong direction.
Google has 246 million unique users in the U.S., according to online marketing platform Semrush. And over the years, it has built a reputation among users for being a trusted platform for people looking for information about just about anything—medical or not. Women looking for abortion-linked services have also turned to the platform, thinking it to be credible in the information it provides.
“This represents a failure by Google to be honest with its users and protect them from harm,” the CCDH report said.