A trans woman says she received a targeted advertisement for an anti-trans documentary while she was watching a YouTube video.
In a TikTok posted on Oct. 30, Nicola Lawton (@nicolaisnotcool) shows a targeted ad she received on YouTube from the Epoch Times, a far-right media company that produced a documentary called Gender Transformation: The Untold Realities.
Lawton says after watching the ad, she began “vibrating with anger.”
The clips that Lawton shows of the ad show a talking head saying that the concept of gender transition discussed in media is an organized push from corporations and the government, an adult asking a teen if they would be happier “as a boy,” another adult telling the teen that their not being allowed to transition is “abuse,” and a voice asking “when did parents become enemy number one?”
Other clips show detransitoners, or people who transitioned to another gender and are now transitioning back to their original gender, talking about what they say are negative side effects they’ve experienced from medically transitioning.
“So often these narratives that feature detransitioners focus on just their perspective,” Lawton says in her TikTok. “And basically villainize trans people.”
The ad also focuses on how quickly teens decide to transition, but Lawton says that this isn’t an authentic representation of the guardrails that are placed on kids and teens who want to medically transition.
Lawton says in her case, there were “so many steps” before she was put on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to start her medical transition, including bloodwork, a waiver, resources, and conversations with doctors.
“It’s spreading so much misinformation,” Lawton says in her TikTok. “F*ck propaganda and f*ck these weird bots that just approve these [advertisements] specifically on Youtube.”
On Tuesday, Lawton’s video had over 20,000 views on TikTok. The Daily Dot reached out to Lawton and YouTube via email and to the Epoch Times via contact form.
@nicolaisnotcool This is an absolute no from me dawg 😇 #transgender #transition #lgbtqia #transphobia #youtube #fyp ♬ original sound – Nicola Lawton
The documentary features Chloe Cole, a well-known detransitioner who campaigns for bans on gender-affirming care for minors, and David Bacon, a detransitioner who told the Epoch Times that HRT “almost killed” him.
HRT is a medical treatment not limited to transgender people—it has been used to combat symptoms of menopause and stymie prostate cancer—and in 2017, a study out of Boston’s Brigham Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School showed that “hormonal therapy is not going to kill you.”
Targeted ads are seen as the culprit of increased political division and disinformation as they can create echo chambers among media consumers.
But some commenters on Lawton’s videos reported that they’d been served targeted ads that went against their personal beliefs—like Lawton was with Epoch’s documentary.
“I’ve been noticing an increase in ads targeted at me opposite my significant beliefs,” a commenter wrote. “Makes me angry…and sad the way they cause so much hate, sadness, and misery in us”
“Me too. Same thing,” another wrote. “Targeting my opposing views.”
Other commenters said they’d been targeted with ads for Epoch’s documentary, and some underscored Lawton’s comments about the hurdles she had to get through to receive HRT.
“We went through a year of psych and medical assessments and therapy before my son was prescribed testosterone,” a commenter said.
Last week, the conservative Prager University Foundation advertised its documentary about detransitioning with a $1 million X campaign. The campaign and its accompanying hashtag #Detrans was met with backlash from trans and other LGBTQ users on the platform.
Update 6:46pm CT, Sept. 23: In a statement to the Daily Dot, a spokesperson for Google (YouTube’s parent company) said that ads that “incite hatred against or promote discrimination of an individual or group on the basis of their gender identity” are prohibited on YouTube.
“We have reviewed the ads in question and they do not violate our policies,” the spokesperson said.
Google’s targeted ads content policy states that ads “shouldn’t target users based on categories prone to systemic discrimination or unfair stigmas,” like their identities and beliefs.
“We also never use your sensitive information such as transgender identification, race, religion, or sexual orientation to tailor the ads you see,” the spokesperson continued.
