Information Integrity & Hate

The Leadership Position

Advertising can create healthy incentives for the production of diverse, informative, entertaining content, or quality news. However, we can also inadvertently incentivise fraud, lies, and content which causes harm. Transparent supply chains, which minimise information pollution and promote information integrity around key topics, will create more healthy incentives for the production of quality content, and restore trust in business.

“This erosion of the integrity of information spaces can undermine people’s ability to exercise human rights and can hamper efforts to achieve peace, prosperity and a liveable future on our planet. In this way, the task of strengthening information integrity presents one of the most urgent challenges of our time.”

United Nations Global Principles For Information Integrity, 2024

The Commercial Impact

• As people lose trust in institutions, the chance of civil unrest increases. The IMF found that GDP remained at about 1% below its pre-shock level a year and a half after a major protest.

• $2.6B in ad spend funds misinformation sites annually.

• 20% of respondents reported liking an advertiser less after seeing adverts on social media with hate speech, and there was a 35% drop in the number of people willing to click on those ads.

Taking Action: Four Essential Steps 

This Guide is designed to be used alongside the CAN Guiding Principles. Please complete these steps before implementing Guides.

1. Skill Up and Set Standards

• Develop internal policies which define information integrity, harmful misinformation and disinformation (including greenwash), and hate speech, and how you act to mitigate either incorporating them into your creative or media buys.
• Check the policies of all partners, vendors and third parties to ensure they align with the above.
  • • Use documents such as the 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies) white paper: Misinformation/ Disinformation In Focus and the Camden Principles on Freedom of Expression and Equality.
    • Definitions are included with this Guide to help you.
    • Each brand/business should review all the available evidence and then exercise their commercial freedom to advertise aligned with their values and business objectives. Consider cross matching partners, vendors and third parties’ supply with:
      • Known lists of disinformation sites, such as those maintained by The Global Disinformation Index, NewsGuard, Centre for Countering Digital Hate, Desmog, EUvsDisinfo database. 
• Train internal teams, equip marketing, procurement, and media buyers with the knowledge to spot and counter hate and information integrity risks, and make choices which increase information integrity.

• Ensure legal compliance and internal knowledge of all relevant legislation.
  • • When assessing a publication or platform, in the UK, for example, there is the Racial and Religious Hatred Act, Equalities Act, Defamation Act, Communications Act, Malicious Communications Act and Online Safety Act, as well as the Advertising Standards Authority Code on Harm and Offence and on Misleading Advertising. 
    • See also, the information for advertisers within the Healthy Incentives pillar of the United Nations Global Principles For Information Integrity.

• Develop a risk protocol. Establish a clear response plan if your ads appear next to harmful content, including:
  • • Live exclusions
    • Real-time site blocking during misinformation spikes.
    • Dynamic blocklists for misinformation hotspots.
    • Cross-DSP negative keyword automation to limit exposure to emerging disinformation terms.
    • In case your own, or a client’s campaign receives backlash:
      • • See We Are Social’s Braving the Backlash report
        • Be aware that some activity online can be inauthentic, so having a clear and consistent approach around brand safety and problematic media content is critical.

2. Incentivise Informative, Entertaining, Quality Content and News

• Ensure your media mix contains sites, apps and channels which are credible sources of information on important topics, that improve information integrity.
  • • Support media which displays the Reporters Without Borders Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) International Standards, and which have been certified by the JTI.
    • Publishers and agencies are strongly recommended to comply with the Association of Online Publishers Ad Quality Charter.
    • Think about placing ads on diverse publications in different languages, citizen journalism, and other places which create more speech, and contribute to information integrity.

• Engage directly with publishers: Build relationships with reputable media rather than relying solely on automated ad placements.

• Experiment with trusted alternatives via partnerships with independent journalism platforms and public interest media.

3. Optimise Media Mix and Ad Performance

• Minimise fraud, waste and monetisation of harmful content in line with CAN’s Guides and Guiding Principles.

• Implement a political ad vetting framework for clients, if you are an agency.

• Use geotargeting exclusions to avoid appearing on politically charged disinformation sites.

• Carefully assess the commercial performance of platforms and publishers. Those which commercialise inaccuracies, distort facts, and do not clearly label opinion and conjecture, harass individuals, peddle rumours, hoaxes and conspiracy for commercial gain, or which promote misinformation about climate science or public health contain a greater brand and societal risk and impact information integrity.

• Consider muting comments on specific ads before they are published to prevent misinformation in comments.

4. Enforce Accountability Across the Supply Chain

• Advocate for better industry standards: Support initiatives that increase transparency in digital advertising.

Key Definitions

“Information integrity entails a pluralistic information space that champions human rights, peaceful societies and a sustainable future. It holds within it the promise of a digital age that fosters trust, knowledge and individual choice for all.”

United Nations Global Principles For Information Integrity

The United Nations (UN) working definitions of misinformation and disinformation are:

“Misinformation: Inaccurate information that is unintentionally shared in good faith by those unaware that they are passing on falsehoods. 
Disinformation: Information that is inaccurate, intended to deceive and shared in order to do serious harm.”
United Nations Peacekeeping

In the UK, the police and The Crown Prosecution Service have agreed the following definition for identifying and flagging hate crimes:

“Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice, based on a person’s disability or perceived disability; race or perceived race; or religion or perceived religion; or sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation or transgender identity or perceived transgender identity.”

The Crown Prosecution Service, Hate Crime

The UN working definitions of hate speech is:

“Any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender or other identity factor.”

United Nations, UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech

Media behaviour of particular concern would include publishing or broadcasting:

1. Statements which incite violence or discrimination against a particular group.
2. Dehumanising language (e.g. “rats” or “cockroaches”) to describe a particular group.
3. Promoting harmful stereotypes or negative misinformation targeting a particular group.
4. Stories about a particular group which are overwhelmingly negative.
5. Coverage which makes unnecessary references to race, religion, gender and other group characteristics that may promote intolerance.