Several industries eager to educate the public about and promote their efforts to fight the coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease it causes are being blocked by Twitter and Google.
Both platforms have flatly told companies and trade groups that they will accept no advertising that includes a mention of coronavirus or COVID-19, a blow to firms trying to direct even helpful advertising to users thirsty for information about how to fight the virus.
Twitter and Google told Secrets that the decision to ban ads that mention the virus came after executives decided that they did not want to appear to be profiting from the crisis.
As a result, only official sources a government office or official and nongovernmental organizations will be able to push out promotions and ads that mention the virus.
But three representatives of industries involved in the fight said that they were not attempting to profit but only to tell the public about tools it can use to stay safe. And, they said, using advertising is the only way to field a national campaign.
They are putting a huge filter around the virus message, one that favors the government, said one representative.
Another said that if taking advertiser money was a problem, the platforms could donate it to an anti-virus campaign.
There are a great number of good actors within the private sector who want to share useful information or direct how people can help during this unprecedented crisis, said a Republican strategist helping in the battle to reverse the decisions by Twitter and Google.
No one is going to see their social media posts unless they pay to promote them. It would be helpful if these platforms would get out of the way or figure this out quickly because its only hurting these efforts, added the strategist.
Twitter told some of the groups blocked that there were several companies and industries complaining.
For now, however, neither is backing down.
At Twitter, ads and promotions mentioning the virus violate its Inappropriate Content policy, a spokeswoman told us.
Based on our Inappropriate Content Policy, we will halt any attempt by advertisers to opportunistically use the COVID-19 outbreak to target inappropriate ads. Government entities that want to disseminate public health information will be permitted to promote ads on COVID-19. In the case of COVID-19, we have put additional safeguards into place in order to facilitate the sharing of trusted public health information and to reduce potential harm to users. We are currently prohibiting the promotion of all medical masks due to strong correlation to COVID-19 and instances of inflated prices globally, she said.
The policy is similar at Google. A spokesperson told us: Since January, we have considered coronavirus to be a sensitive event. We implemented this policy out of an abundance of caution to protect users, and do not allow any ads to run on coronavirus-related terms. We are monitoring the situation closely and are making real-time adjustments to help businesses reach their audiences with pertinent information.
Google also said that it had set aside some $270 million to help governments and NGOs promote their anti-virus efforts and education campaigns.
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