The Power of Perception: Navigating Brand Safety in the Era of Fake News

Fake news is nothing short of a plague in the online ecosystem. The list of people and organizations affected by fake news is growing indefinitely. However, digital advertisers have been on this list for quite some time.

That’s correct. Even if your brand has nothing to do with politics or current events, fake news could harm your brand if you use digital advertising. More specifically, fake news can harm brands’ reputations over time.

If that sounds alarming, it’s because this is a serious issue, and we’ll go into great detail in this article.

Let’s start with the basics:

What is Fake News?

While there is no clear definition of fake news, it refers to misleading information.

When you search for the term on Google, the first result is a Wikipedia article dedicated to the topic. According to the article, one of the most common reasons for using fake news is to generate advertising revenue. “Fake news” refers to false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news frequently seeks to harm a person’s or entity’s reputation or generate revenue through advertising.  So, we now understand that fake news can harm a brand’s reputation and has something to do with advertising.

Let’s dig deeper.

How can fake news impact the brand’s reputation? 

If a brand’s advertising or messaging appears on a website that distributes fake news, the brand’s reputation may suffer in the minds of its customers and prospects.

Not surprisingly, this sentiment extends beyond fake news. If your ads appear on websites promoting hate speech, conspiracy theories, and other skewed information, you may unintentionally harm your brand reputation.

This trend does not only apply to sentiments. It is causing real and severe damage to brand reputations, hurting advertisers’ bottom lines.

Over 80% of UK consumers surveyed believe that the responsibility for ad placement is shared equally across the supply chain. These customers have also stated that they will stop purchasing from brands that display ads next to hate speech, fake news, violent content, and even controversial political views, among other topics.

Alarmingly, less than half of digital advertisers have specific guidelines for not advertising next to misinformation or hate speech.

How might you be funding fake news/misinformation?

Consumers hold brands accountable for vetting where their ads appear. This is because many consumers (correctly) believe that the ad budgets allocated to these websites keep them afloat, allowing them to continue spreading misinformation.

If your ad appears on a website that publishes fake news, you may unknowingly contribute to its spread. In 2019, the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) estimated that websites that publish and spread fake news receive approximately $235 million in ad budget each year.

Given that nearly 500,000 new websites are launched on the internet every day, the above figure has undoubtedly grown exponentially over the last three years.

Nearly a year ago, GDI released another report detailing how ad tech companies serve ads to (and thus fund) websites that spread misinformation about the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. The same companies were mentioned in a more recent report about ad tech firms funding websites that spread misogynistic misinformation. 

While GDI does not name advertisers in their reports, most web users should understand how digital advertising works and hold advertisers accountable for funding the spread of misinformation and fake news. There needs to be more consistency between consumer expectations and what is achieved through brand safety best practices.

How do you combat the impact of fake news?

Every entity in the digital advertising supply chain bears a social responsibility to prevent the spread of fake news, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

So, what can advertisers do?

For starters, advertisers on platforms such as Google, Facebook, and Bing can manually monitor where their advertisements appear. These platforms enable advertisers to customize their placement lists and exclude problematic websites.

You can also create a blacklist of known fake news publishers.

Working on company-wide guidelines to avoid ad placements on fake news websites is also advisable.

However, manually vetting each publisher can take an unrealistic amount of time if you use third-party ad platforms. This is where brand safety solutions can come in useful.

Advertisers can use mFilterIt’s digital brand protection solutions to place safe ads. The solution employs AI and machine learning to validate the content adjacent to the ad, ensuring that it is GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media) compliant and contextually relevant. 

Conclusion

While fake news may appear to be an issue unrelated to brands, the reality is quite different. As brands spend their advertising dollars without vetting publishers, the financial incentive for them to publish fake news and hate speech will only increase.

Brands must take a stand against the spread of fake news, recognize their role and responsibility, and implement relevant solutions for comprehensive brand protection.