In the past week, we have seen riots take place across the UK, and people of colour targeted by far-right groups in the streets. This violence has been fuelled by misinformation online, which has been loaded with hate speech and xenophobia. This deeply concerns us at CAN, and will have been personally frightening for many of you, as it was for many of our team.
CAN’s mission is more critical than ever. We exist to try and break the economic link between advertising and the harmful content that divides communities. The choices we make as advertisers significantly impact society. Our industry can and should be doing better.
As we state in our mis/disinformation manifesto:
“Advertising can support the fight against disinformation and misinformation by funding reputable, high-quality, and publicly accountable publishers and broadcasters; taking swift action against publishers who peddle inaccuracies for commercial gain; and supporting public education around critical evaluation of media content quality and trustworthiness.
Advertisers should also take action to ensure that they do not inadvertently fund disinformation. The suppression of viable and accurate information is a form of misinformation in its own way.”
What CAN is doing:
- We are ready to engage with the new government and OFCOM to urgently review the Online Safety Act which, while important, took too long and is woefully inadequate to deal with this level of disinformation and hate fomented on and offline.
- We are in touch with our civil society partners and supporting or advising them where appropriate.
- CAN will continue to engage with the UN on its United Global Principles for Information Integrity, which our advice helped to create. The United Global Principles for Information Integrity highlight how technological advances have enabled the spread of misinformation, disinformation and hate speech at an unprecedented volume, velocity and virality, risking the integrity of the information ecosystem.
What YOU can do:
- Review your organisations’ misinformation policy and ensure it is being met currently. Audit your site and app site lists to check they are not inadvertently funding hate or misinformation.
- Check in with team members from global majority backgrounds to offer support during these challenging times. Organisations such as NABS are dedicated to advancing the mental wellness of the advertising, marketing and media community and are offering support through an advice line and coach-facilitated discussions.
- Review your keyword block list to be certain you are not defunding high-quality journalism covering large scale news events or covering misinformation itself.
- Ask your platform representatives what they are doing to ensure your brand safety and information integrity around these issues, and what steps they are taking to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
- Refer to CAN’s manifestos and the guidance within them and get in touch with the CAN team with any questions.
A message from CAN co-founders & co-chairs Harriet Kingaby & Jake Dubbins:
At CAN, we are an inclusive group, set up to improve the whole advertising industry. We strive to be inclusive of all and to address issues of extremism and marginalisation and look forward to continuing this work with the CAN membership. If you have further questions on this, or would like a chat, do get in touch by contacting Nafissa Norris, our Membership & Engagement Account Director. We will keep CAN members updated on any further developments.
We thank you once again for your support of CAN and hope that you and your loved ones are safe.
