If you don’t know, the internet is like a bigbillboard. On millions of websites, on Youtube, on Twitch, on Twitter, on Facebook, etc., you will find ads. Bullfighting is still in force in several countries of the world. I’ve bothered to look at Google’s publisher policy to see what’s allowed and what’s not allowed and I’ve checked pages about the world of bulls to see if they comply with those policies.
Applicable law
Much of the legislation applied in Spain comes from a higher hierarchy that are the laws of the European Union. Article 13 of the Treaty of Lisbon states that, when formulating and implementing the Union’s policies in the fields of agriculture, fisheries, transport, the internal market, research and technological development and space, the Union and the Member States shall take full account of the welfare requirements of animals as sentient beings,whilerespecting the relevant legal or administrative provisions and customs of the Member States, in particular, religious rites, cultural traditions and regional heritage.
Law 18/2013 for the regulation of bullfighting as a cultural heritage implies the legal recognition of this cultural phenomenon as an integral part of cultural heritage. In Spain there are political parties that want to repeal this law or make one more in line with the rights of animals, and less with the cultural heritage rights of others.
Bullfighting pages without Google ads
There are pages that talk about the world of bullfighting and few have Google advertising ads. If they don’t have ads, it’s for a reason. Looking at the ad serving policy in the Google Adsenseprogram, which allows the monetization of websites, I have analyzed what may be the cause of this absence of ads on those bullfighting pages. Of all the reasons, the one that best fits would be the following:
Animal abuse
We do not allow the following type of content: Content that promotes unjustified cruelty or violence towards animals Examples: The promotion of activities that involve animal abuse for the purpose of entertaining, such as cockfights or dog fights
It should be noted that Google does not refer to bulls, it talks about cockfights or dogs, when obviously it is an activity that promotes animal abuse in order to entertain. That’s not to say Google approves of it. In fact, the fact that there are no ads on those pages is precisely because they are not allowed according to their advertising policy.
Types of ads on bullfighting pages
As I said, there are pages about bulls that have Google ads. This is because its content is not explicit and no animal abuse is shown. I have found that one of them is a kind of notebook where there are people who write articles about the world of the bull, without unpleasant images.
Other pages include external advertising. They contact companies in their locality or nearby and put an advertising banner for which they have to pay to advertise in them.
Finally, there are other pages that do not show any type of advertising. I understand that it is because it is done by an association or a group of people who do it without the need to include any type of monetization of the website.
Censored video page
One of the pages that does not have Google Adsense advertising in a section is seen that there is a television page, they upload the videos to a platform and then show them on the page. If we click on the link to watch that television it takes to the portal vimeo.com but it is no longer available. There are several catches in archive.org as seen in Fig.1 but in September 2019 it closed.
The reason for the closure was because the portal that hosts the videos, Vimeo, sent a message to the administrators of the account to tell them that it does not allow content that shows violence or animal cruelty. Although it recognizes the cultural significance of bulls and the journalistic approach, it is simply not allowed content.
Summary
Therefore, if Youtube, Vimeo, Google Adsense, etc., tells you that your content is animal abuse, isn’t it because bullfighting is really animal abuse? Isn’t it therefore better to focus your company or your work on something that is not reprehensible by anyone?
In a few years there will be no talk of this controversy and society will put bullfighting aside forever. Right now there are fewer and fewer people following bullfighting and the youth are turning their backs on it. However, it is shameful to see pages on Facebook or threads on Twitter where animalist parties constantly upload videos of dying bulls, which causes a rain of insults from their followers.
There are few pages I know of that contain as many insults as the Facebook page of that animalist party. I don’t want to see those videos, I’ve already seen them and I don’t want to see how an animal suffers. Won’t it be better to focus your posts on what you’re doing to eradicate bullfighting?
This is not the time to harass anyone or insult. It is time for the laws to change and the bullfighting sector to reorient itself towards a future away from animal abuse.
References
- https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/48182
- https://tecneofito.com/sitio-web-esta-prohibido-de-usar-adsense/
- https://www.diariojuridico.com/la-tauromaquia-en-el-ordenamiento-juridico-europeo-y-espanol/
