A non-profit that aims to defund online disinformation has already taken money from several prominent far-right websites. Now, it is aiming at Fox News as its most formidable target.
Check My Ads hopes that the group's success in removing advertising dollars from right-wing provocateurs such as Glenn Beck, Steve Bannon and Dan Bongino, will help it gain momentum as it attempts confront a powerful media industry.
The outfit launched a new campaign on Thursday directed at Fox's website, and its YouTube channel. It asks the public to press online ad platforms to end their business dealings with Fox. The announcement comes as the House Committee investigating Capitol riots launches a series hearings focusing on violence that occurred on Jan. 6.
Claire Atkin, an ex-marketer who founded Check My Ads, claims that Fox "encouraged" and supported the attack on Capitol Hill.
She stated that advertisers have repeatedly said, "We don't want violence to be funded." It's therefore shocking that Fox News continues to receive these ad dollars.
Mikel Ellcessor is the group's chief operational officer. He points out Tucker Carlson, Fox News' star,'s sympathetic portrayal about the Capitol rioters. Carlson's documentary series, "Patriot Purge," promoted conspiracy theories about Jan. 6. Carlson called the rioters "political prisoners" and suggested that the violence was instigated and orchestrated by left-wing activists.
He stated that Fox News TV's actions help fund all their digital properties. You can't claim your hands are clean or free from dirt when you give a dollar to Fox News.
Fox News stated that the campaign was an attempt at censorship and dismissed it as such, saying, "There is no greater threat to democracy then the attempt to silence free speech."
According to the network, it is proud of "featuring more dissenting views on the major problems facing the country than our competitors in cable news."
This push by left-leaning activists comes amid increasing calls from online advertising watchers to have more transparency and accountability within the complex industry of digital advertising. It is an ever-growing sector of the economy, where an estimated $521 billion was expended last year.
Check My Ads did not call for consumer boycotts. Instead, they used a new approach to apply pressure on the hidden engines that power the online advertising industry: the ad exchanges.
These exchanges are operated by Google and Verizon, but also a group of smaller firms. They act as a middleman between companies trying to place an advertisement and a website.
Many times, the exchanges have content guidelines that prohibit them from placing ads on sites that glorify violence or promote the overthrow and demise of the government.
The exchanges took action after the group complained that sites they were doing business with did not comply with their rules. Freewheel, an exchange that specializes in Steve Bannon's Real America Voice, dropped OpenX's Glenn Beck's The Blaze. Google also cut ties with Dan Bongino. The group estimates that millions of dollars have been diverted from disinformation sites by the campaign.
"Ad exchanges have established a standard, they have set a precedent for how publishers should behave." Atkin said that her group is pursuing the "ATM" of the disinformation industry.
According to a NewsGuard and ComScore analysis, websites that spread disinformation generate over $2 billion annually in advertising revenue.
Check My Ads claims that their goal is to not only take the money out of circulation but to shed light on how the dark world of online advertising works.
An automated process generates 90% of all online ads, rather than being placed directly by companies.
According to Joshua Lowcock (executive at UM's marketing and media agency), industry insiders refer to this system as "programmatic advertising." This basically means that it is automated using computer software.
Lowcock stated, "It's almost like a stock market." "When you visit a website there are many advertisers bidding for you in a live-time auction."
It works like this: The exchanges make deals with publishers to create huge lists of websites that can be used for advertising. They also negotiate contracts with companies in order to reach the desired audience. In a matter of milliseconds, every visitor to a website is presented with competing offers for their attention on an ad-exchange. The winner then serves an ad to them.
However, it is not unusual for a company's advertisement to appear in unexpected places.
Jon Klein, a former president of CNN and now a digital media expert, said that you may not be aware of the content your brand is living next too. It's the nightmare for most responsible marketers.
Also, exchanges tend to have content guidelines. Google, the largest ad-exchange, has content guidelines that prohibit it from placing ads on websites that make "demonstrably false" claims or could undermine participation in democratic or electoral processes.
Lowcock stated that an exchange's website inventory is so large and growing that it is sometimes difficult to enforce its rules.
He said, "We often find that an exchange sign up a publisher to adhere to its own monetization policies, but we often find that they don’t."
Ellcessor from Check My Ads claims that if the exchanges followed their own guidelines they would ban Fox News' online empire.
"Now all that we are doing is saying is, 'Why is Fox News, and particularly Fox News.com getting a pass?" He said.
It will be difficult to convince ad exchanges that Fox News, the nation's most-rated cable news channel, should be blacklisted. It may prove difficult to prove that Fox News is violating the rules of exchanges.
Klein, a former executive at CNN, stated that Fox News has the ability to push the boundaries of the line with its boundary-pushing programming and sometimes inflammatory content.
A second factor is that corporations controlling major exchanges might be reluctant to isolate Fox for fear of backlash from conservatives.
Even if the campaign succeeds, it will not be enough to stop Fox from being kneecapped. Fox's cable division makes up 95% of Fox’s profits, so giving up online advertising would not make a significant financial impact on the company.
However, Check My Ads staffers are optimistic that the campaign will not deprive Fox of any money. Nandini Jammi (cofounder of Check My Ads), who is also behind social media activist group Sleeping Giants, stated that the campaign is not only about attacking Fox's legitimacy but also stirring up a wider advertising-wide discussion about who is financially supporting Fox.
Jammi stated that "We can do much more than complain and be sad, tweet and share with one another that we are sad about Fox News's actions in our country," "We can fight back."
