UK
Fire Brigades Union warns of strikes without pay talks progress

Alan Jones, PA Industrial Correspondent
Tue, 7 February 2023 



Strikes by firefighters will be announced unless there is no progress in last-minute talks over pay on Wednesday, a union has warned.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) called for a “significant shift” from employers following a huge vote for industrial action over a 5% pay offer.

The union said it hopes to resolve the dispute without a strike, and is giving employers chance to come forward with an improved offer.

If the talks fail, strike dates are expected to be announced on Thursday.

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack, said: “The strength of feeling among firefighters is clear, with an 88% vote in favour of strikes by FBU members, and 94% in Northern Ireland.

“That’s one of the biggest mandates for industrial action by a trade union in recent years.

“The reason for that massive vote to strike is simple: firefighters are dealing with financial hardship and the growing threat of ‘in work’ poverty, with a real-terms cut to their wages.

“They are struggling to pay the bills during the cost-of-living crisis that this Government is presiding over.

“Going on strike is an absolute last resort for firefighters.

“However, this action can still be avoided if the employers make an offer which addresses the concerns of firefighters.

“The FBU is adopting an open-minded and constructive approach to the talks today, having already delayed strike action by 10 days to allow employers to meet us.

“Industrial action is not inevitable if the employers genuinely engage with the FBU about the anger among firefighters about poverty pay and improve their offer to address our concerns.



“However, firefighters will not be messed about, and the Government and employers cannot ride roughshod over the 88% vote for strikes by FBU members.

“If there is no significant shift from the employers, then strikes will be announced tomorrow (Thursday).

“The responsibility for any disruption to services would then firmly lie with fire service employers and government ministers for not delivering a serious pay offer.”

Unilever to build Mexico plant as part of $400 million investment

Tue, 7 February 2023 


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Unilever Plc will build a manufacturing plant in the northern Mexican border state Nuevo Leon as part of a $400 million investment in the country over the next three years, the company said on Tuesday.

The plant, which will be located in Salinas Victoria on the outskirts of Monterrey, will manufacture beauty and personal care products, Unilever said.

The investment will bring in 1,200 new direct and indirect jobs, the company added.

Unilever already operates four plants in the country, which is a key center for exports to other nations, the company said. The newest plant is set to open in 2024, Unilever said.

In recent months, major producers from Mattel Inc to BMW have opted to invest in Mexico as part of a boom in "nearshoring," or bringing supply chains closer to their final destination.

(Reporting by Kylie Madry in Mexico City; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

UK

Fewer than one in 200 companies have credible climate plans, says CDP

Tue, 7 February 2023

An exhaust emits fumes as a car is driven through Richmond in London

LONDON (Reuters) - Fewer than one in 200 companies who submit climate change-related data to a leading environmental disclosure platform have credible climate transition plans, the nonprofit platform CDP said on Wednesday in its latest review of corporate submissions.

The data underlines the scale of the gap between company pledges to transition to net-zero carbon emissions, and the detailed plans that show how a firm will align its entire business model to meeting those targets.

Of 18,600 companies which provided CDP with data only 81 - or 0.4% - disclosed information against 21 key indicators that CDP includes in a questionnaire and which it says represents a credible plan.

The 81 companies was a lower number than the 135 which disclosed against key indicators last year, which CDP said was down to the platform "raising the bar, in accordance with latest science, on what constitutes a credible climate transition plan".

CDP's key indicators include everything from whether the company board has oversight of a climate plan to financial planning.

"The need for companies to develop a credible climate transition plan is not an additional element but an essential part of any future planning," Amir Sokolowski, global director, climate, at CDP said in a statement.

"Companies must evidence they are forward planning in order for us to avert the worst impacts of climate change and to send the correct signals to capital markets, that they will remain profitable."

Companies headquartered in Japan ranked highest with 16 firms disclosing against the 21 indicators. Six out of 1,448 UK-based companies provided full disclosure, CDP found.

CDP has emerged as the world's biggest repository of environmental data submitted on a voluntary basis by companies, which are under pressure from their shareholders to disclose how they plan to navigate the transition to a lower-carbon future.

The platform worked on its analysis with the UK Transition Plan Taskforce, which is developing mandatory standards for listed companies and financial firms to ensure plans are comparable.

(Reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Australian electric battery maker buys Britishvolt out of administration

Chris Price
Mon, 6 February 2023 

The site in Blyth where Britishvolt had planned to build an electric battery gigafactory

- Owen Humphreys/PA Wire

Plans for an electric battery gigafactory in the UK have been revived after an Australian business struck a deal to buy collapsed Britishvolt.

Recharge Industries, which has operations in Geelong and New York, has been chosen as the preferred bidder for the company and plans to revive its goal of building a battery factory in the North East.

David Collard, founder of Recharge Industries and chief executive of its parent Scale Facilitation, said the Australian business was “thrilled” and “can’t wait to get started making a reality of our plans to build the UK’s first gigafactory”.

He added: “After a competitive and rigorous process, we’re confident our proposal will deliver a strong outcome for all involved.”

Recharge Industries has licensed electric battery designs from the US and is working on building a lithium-ion battery factory in the Australian state of Victoria.

Mr Collard previously thanked Lord Botham, the retired cricketer turned trade envoy, for his “proactive assistance" ahead of its bid.

Britishvolt was working on Britain's first battery factory in Blyth but collapsed last month.

Joint administrators EY said the majority of the business and assets would be taken on by Recharge, with the deal set to close within a week.

Administrators considered "numerous offers" for the failed electric battery maker, EY said.

Greybull, the former owner of British Steel and Monarch Airlines, is understood to have held talks with administrators while Jaguar Land Rover owner Tata was also said to be interested at one point.

Britishvolt fell into administration in January after struggling to secure funding. 200 people were made redundant.

The company was founded by Swedes Orral Nadjari and Lars Carlstrom in December 2019 and the project was championed by former prime minister Boris Johnson.

Doubts were raised about the financial health of the business last summer. Commodities giant Glencore, which was an investor in Britishvolt, agreed a last-minute deal to provide a five week life-line late last year but the business was unable to secure long-term funding.

UK

Gordon Brown: Government and Ofgem are creating booming business for loan sharks

Alana Calvert, PA
Tue, 7 February 2023 

Former prime minister Gordon Brown has accused Ofgem and the Government of creating a “booming business” for loan sharks after the prepayment energy meter scandal was uncovered.

Mr Brown accused the regulator’s chief executive, Jonathan Brearley, of “dismally” failing to protect vulnerable customers after it was revealed that hundreds of thousands of impoverished Britons were forced to switch to costly prepayment meters, pushing some of them into the hands of illegal moneylenders.

The scandal uncovered by The Times found that British Gas routinely sent debt collectors to break into customers’ homes and force-fit pay-as-you-go meters, even when they were known to have extreme vulnerabilities.

Responding to these revelations, Mr Brown said the Ofgem boss needed to “consider his position” after “failing on his responsibilities to energy customers”.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown accused Ofgem’s chief executive, Jonathan Brearley, of ‘dismally’ failing to protect vulnerable customers(Jane Barlow/PA)

Writing in The Independent, the former Labour leader savaged both the energy regulator and the Government for perpetrating “harsh and callous policy decisions” and “failing to defend low-income families against the indefensible”.

“(Mr) Brearley’s official responsibility… is to ‘protect energy customers by ensuring they are treated fairly’… (and to) ‘stamp out sharp and bad practice’,” Mr Brown said.

“So (Mr) Brearley – and the now restructured Energy Department – should immediately explain why instead of being on the side of the public, they have failed dismally to properly monitor and expose utility companies and their debt agents who, in the middle of the worst cost of living crisis for 50 years, have been breaking into the homes of impoverished customers.”

The former prime minister said Ofgem was “not alone in failing to defend low-income families against the indefensible”, accusing the Government and its agencies of “harsh and callous policy decisions” that were “turning illegal money lending into Britain’s biggest booming business among low-income communities”.

A recent Times investigation revealed British Gas routinely sends debt collectors to break into customers’ homes and force-fit pay-as-you-go meters, even when they are known to have extreme vulnerabilities (Steve Parsons/PA)

Mr Brown said that through his work with local charities he had learnt users of pre-payment metres were needing to spend “a lot more” for each unit of their energy, adding that “at least” 20% of them had not been able to obtain the cash or discount vouchers they were promised.

“This failure to act is creating an even more serious social emergency for hardpressed families: Pushing them further into debt and, most worrying of all, into the hands of illegal moneylenders,” he said, listing the bedroom tax, the two-child rule and other caps and taxes which had worsened the financial situation for low-income households.

“Ministers are leaving families unable to cover the costs of their weekly food bill, without resorting to borrowing wherever they can find cash.

“The welfare state safety net is now full of holes – and instead of being the last line of defence for people in need, our own social security ministry is pushing families into ever more desperate measures.”

The former Labour leader said ‘our own social security ministry’ was ‘pushing families into ever more desperate measures’ (Andrew Matthews/PA)

He added: “Blood is in the water and loan sharks are circling.

“A record number of families are now so deep in debt that they are turning to the door-step lender, and the pay-day lender standing outside the cut-price stores, the pub and the betting shop. And even more worryingly, as illegal money lending moves online, the desperate are even more at risk as long as these social media platforms remain exempt from proper scrutiny.

Mr Brown’s comments follow the senior presiding judge of England and Wales telling magistrates to stop the processing of applications by energy firms to enter homes to install prepayment meters.

Ofgem has already asked energy suppliers to suspend the activity.

Meanwhile, Paypoint revealed that around one in five people did not redeem the £66 energy support voucher they were sent in November by the company under a Government support scheme

Of the hundreds of thousands of vouchers sent out only about 81% had been redeemed on Sunday when they ran out – 90 days after they were issued.

It means that thousands of households with prepayment meters missed out on energy bill support they were entitled to receive.

Fakery and fraud: Energy scammers cast

'wide net' on Facebook

Anuj Chopra, with Lucille Sodipe and Faith Brown in Manila and Gemma Cahya in Jakarta
Tue, 7 February 2023


A Filipino consumer fumes as she rips open a portable charger to discover she has been conned -- the batteries are choked with sand, making her yet another victim of scammers on Facebook.

AFP's fact checkers have uncovered a slew of energy-related scams proliferating on Facebook -- from fake solar panel incentives in the United States to hoax electric bike giveaways in Indonesia and the sale of dud devices in the Philippines.

And the trend underscores how fraudsters worldwide profit off disinformation, casting a wide net across social media users, many of whom take the bait amid a cost of living crisis and high utility and energy costs.

"What they did was awful," the 24-year-old Filipino, Brenilyn Ayachock, vented in an online video that showed sand pouring out of the power bank as she opened it with a knife.

"We were expecting a good product, but this is what they sent us."

Ayachock made the purchase on what appeared to be the Facebook page of a legitimate energy device retailer, with "special offers" and "flash sales" alongside environment-friendly messages such as "turn off unnecessary lights."

The page stopped responding to her, Ayachock said, after she bought the device for 1,500 pesos ($28), a small fortune at a time of galloping inflation.

She immediately reported the page to Facebook, but it was still active as of this week.

- 'Scammers follow headlines' -

Ayachock is far from the only victim as social media becomes a breeding ground for everything from bogus cryptocurrency ads, to "romance" scams and hoaxes aimed at extracting people's personal data.

Last year, the Philippines government warned against "unscrupulous" money-saving offers as consumers grappled with backbreaking utility prices.

AFP debunked Facebook posts that used doctored news reports to promote a bogus "power saving" device they claimed could slash electricity bills.

The warnings fell on deaf ears, with commercial data showing thousands of such gadgets are sold monthly. Activists say complaints in online reviews are drowned out by comments from people desperate to try anything to lower their expenses.

"Scammers follow the headlines and there isn't a day that goes by that we don't hear about how to conserve energy, rising gas and utility prices and the need for renewable energy," Amy Nofziger, director of fraud victim support at the US-based nonprofit AARP, told AFP.

"It's a wide net for scammers. Most social media sites do not thoroughly vet the ads placed on their sites, however many users do not know this and they put their full trust in these advertisements."

The ease with which fraudsters pelt users with disinformation raises questions about the capacity of platforms like Facebook to police paid-for scam advertising that is a lucrative revenue source.

Critics, including Patricia Schouker, a fellow at the Colorado-based Payne Institute, say algorithms that prioritize content based on preferences have let scam ads prey on users most likely to engage.

- 'Scams evolving' -

A spokesperson for Meta, Facebook's owner, said it views the "threat of scams seriously" and had taken action including disabling many of the ad accounts responsible for fraud reported by AFP's fact checkers.

"The people who push these kinds of ads are persistent, well-funded, and are constantly evolving," the spokesperson said.

AFP has a global team of journalists who debunk misinformation as part of Meta's third-party fact-checking program.

Last October, AFP debunked Facebook posts claiming free electric bikes were on offer in Indonesia after the government raised fuel prices. Meta said it had disabled pages and profiles linked to the scam.

But Hendro Sutono, a member of the citizen's group Indonesia Electric Motorcycle Community, voiced concern that fake stores offering electric bikes have cropped up on the platform -- and are hard to detect.

"The schemers take pictures from the real stores and repost them on their cloned accounts, so they look really legitimate," Sutono told AFP.

Sutono said he feared fraud could tarnish the image of the electric vehicles to the extent people will give up using them.

In many cases in the United States, scammers pose as utility company representatives. One Oregon-based firm warned its consumers last year that "scams are constantly evolving" and fraudsters tried to target some of them using "Facebook messenger."

"We see a growing number of utility front groups which are organizations that appear independent but are targeting their audience via Facebook, Instagram and TikTok," Schouker told AFP.

"They amplify misinformation... while masking their true identity."

burs-ac/ec

UK

Force wealthy back to work by slashing pension tax-free lump sum, says IFS

Oliver Gill
Sun, 5 February 2023 

The tax-free limit on total retirement savings should be radically overhauled to stop successful older professionals quitting the workforce in droves, a prominent think-tank has demanded.

The pension lifetime allowance ought to be based on the amount saved during the working lives rather than the total value of the investments at retirement, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

A saver currently put away no more than the lifetime allowance without their pension being subject to a tax charge of up to 55 per cent. The allowance has been halved over the last decade and now stands at £1.073 million.

The IFS said in a report published today that such rules were part of a pension tax system that was often “arbitrary, wasteful or unfair” and provided older workers with “ridiculously strong disincentives to work more”.

The think-tank also said rules that allowed savers to access 25pc of their pension tax-free were too generous towards the wealthy, and suggested that this amount was capped at £100,000 rather than the current allowance of close to £270,000.

It comes as Jeremy Hunt is under pressure to provide over-50s greater incentives to either remain or return to the workforce as the UK economy grapples with low unemployment and soaring inflation.

The Chancellor is grappling with a “productivity puzzle” as many people have not returned to work following the pandemic.

The prospect of suffering crippling tax on pension savings has made it uneconomic for higher-earners such as hospital consultants to continue working. For some it makes more sense to retire earlier to avoid breaching the lifetime allowance.

In the report entitled “A blueprint for a better tax treatment of pensions”, the IFS proposes replacing the current lifetime allowance with a lifetime contribution cap. Defined benefit retirement funds, known colloquially as salary-linked schemes, would not be changed, however.

Isaac Delestre, economist at the IFS and author of the report, said: “[An] evening-out of tax support for pension saving would be more equitable and more economically efficient, and would allow the current set of poorly designed limits on what individuals can save in a pension to be relaxed.”

Mr Delestre also suggested that the increase in the thresholds could be funded through reforming other subsidies which benefit high-earners, such as the 25pc tax-free component.

“The 25pc tax-free component is worthless to those who do not pay income tax in retirement. And those making individual pension contributions receive much smaller subsidies,” he said.

Sir Steve Webb, former pensions minister and now a retirement sector consultant said: “There is a perfectly good argument that says we shouldn’t cap the size of the pot, we should cap what you put in.”

However, he said that lifting the cap overnight would not be without its problems.

Sir Steve said: “We start with a lifetime of history. If we decided from now on, we were only going to cap what people were going to put in, what do we do? We haven’t got a lifetime of records of what people have put in. They know what I’ve got in my pot; but they don’t have [contributions from] 20 years ago, 30 years ago.

Ex-Tokyo Olympics official held on alleged bid-rigging: media

Tue, 7 February 2023 


Japanese prosecutors arrested a former senior Tokyo Olympics official over alleged bid-rigging, local media said Wednesday, the latest twist in a growing corruption scandal.

Tokyo prosecutors declined to comment on the reports, but local media published photos of police raiding the home of Yasuo Mori, who ran test events for the pandemic-postponed Summer Games held in 2021.

The Asahi Shimbun daily and other outlets said Mori, 55, was arrested over alleged violations of the anti-monopoly law.

Prosecutors reportedly accuse him of rigging a string of supposedly open competitive bids and limited tender contracts for Olympic events, worth a total of 40 billion yen ($305 million), local media said.

Mori and other officials involved in the alleged rigging reportedly created their own list of candidates for the events and bids went mostly in line with their choices. Most bids received a single tender, the Asahi reported.

Prosecutors are already investigating bribery allegations around the Games over claims a former Tokyo 2020 board member took money from companies in exchange for Olympic partnership deals.

The former official, Haruyuki Takahashi, has been arrested over the scandal, and in December, the former executive of a major clothing company admitted in court that he offered money to secure sponsorship rights, according to national broadcaster NHK.

The corruption scandal has cast a shadow over the northern city of Sapporo's bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics.

Officials there have stopped holding promotional events for the bid and plan a nationwide poll to gauge support.

The ballooning saga is not the first time questions have been raised over impropriety around the Tokyo Games.

The former head of Japan's Olympic Committee, Tsunekazu Takeda, stepped down in 2019 after French prosecutors launched an investigation into corruption allegations linked to Tokyo's Olympic bid.

kh/sah/ssy

Japan rolls out 'humble and lovable' delivery robots

Natsuko FUKUE
Tue, 7 February 2023 


"Excuse me, coming through," a four-wheeled robot chirps as it dodges pedestrians on a street outside Tokyo, part of an experiment businesses hope will tackle labour shortages and rural isolation.

From April, revised traffic laws will allow self-driving delivery robots to navigate streets across Japan.

Proponents hope the machines could eventually help elderly people in depopulated rural areas get access to goods, while also addressing a shortage of delivery workers in a country with chronic labour shortages.


There are challenges to overcome, acknowledges Hisashi Taniguchi, president of Tokyo-based robotics firm ZMP, including safety concerns.

"They are still newcomers in human society, so it's natural they're seen with a bit of discomfort," he told AFP.

The robots won't be operating entirely alone, with humans monitoring remotely and able to intervene.

Taniguchi said it's important the robots "are humble and lovable" to inspire confidence.

ZMP has partnered with behemoths such as Japan Post Holdings in its trials of delivery robots in Tokyo.

Its "DeliRo" robot aims for a charming look, featuring big, expressive eyes that can be made teary in sadness if pedestrians block its way.

"Every kid around here knows its name," he said.

- 'How about some hot drinks?' -

There is a serious purpose behind the cuteness.

Japan has one of the world's oldest populations, with nearly 30 percent of its citizens aged over 65. Many live in depopulated rural areas that lack easy access to daily necessities.

Labour shortages in its cities and new rules limiting overtime for truck drivers also make it difficult for businesses to keep up with pandemic-fuelled e-commerce and delivery demands.

"The shortage of workers in transport will be a challenge in the future," said engineer Dai Fujikawa of electronics giant Panasonic, which is trialling delivery robots in Tokyo and nearby Fujisawa.

"I hope our robots will be used to take over where needed and help ease the labour crunch," he told AFP.

Similar robots are already in use in countries such as the United Kingdom and China but there are concerns in Japan about everything from collisions to theft.

Regulations set a maximum speed of six kilometres per hour (four miles per hour), meaning the "chances of severe injury in the event of a collision are relatively small", said Yutaka Uchimura, a robotic engineering professor at Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT).

But if a robot "moves off the sidewalk and collides with a car due to some discrepancy between the pre-installed location data and the actual environment, that would be extremely worrying", he said.

Panasonic says its "Hakobo" robot can judge autonomously when to turn as well as detect obstacles, such as construction and approaching bikes, and stop.

One person at the Fujisawa control centre simultaneously monitors four robots via cameras and is automatically alerted whenever their robotic charges are stuck or stopped by obstacles, Panasonic's Fujikawa said.

Humans will intervene in such cases, as well as in high-risk areas such as junctions. Hakobo is programmed to capture and send real-time images of traffic lights to operators and await instructions.

Test runs so far have ranged from delivering medicine and food to Fujisawa residents to peddling snacks in Tokyo with disarming patter such as: "Another cold day, isn't it? How about some hot drinks?"

- 'A gradual process' -

"I think it's a great idea," passerby Naoko Kamimura said after buying cough drops from Hakobo on a Tokyo street.

"Human store clerks might feel more reassuring but with robots, you can shop more casually. Even when there's nothing you feel is worth buying, you can just leave without feeling guilty," she said.

Authorities don't believe Japanese streets will soon be teeming with robots, given the pressure to protect human employment.

"We don't expect drastic change right away, because there are jobs at stake," Hiroki Kanda, an official from the trade ministry promoting the technology, told AFP.

"The spread of robots will be more of a gradual process, I think."

Experts such as SIT's Uchimura are aware of the technology's limitations.

"Even the simplest of tasks performed by humans can be difficult for robots to emulate," he said.

Uchimura believes rolling the robots out in sparsely populated rural areas first would be safest. However, firms say demand in cities is likely to make urban deployment more commercially viable.

ZMP president Taniguchi hopes to eventually see the machines operating everywhere.

"I think it would make people happy if, with better communication technology, these delivery robots can patrol a neighbourhood or check on the safety of elderly people," he said.

"Japan loves robots."

tmo-nf/sah/pbt/dhc

Deepfake 'news anchors' in pro-China footage: research

Tue, 7 February 2023 


The "news broadcasters" appear stunningly real, but they are AI-generated deepfakes in first-of-their-kind propaganda videos that a research report published Tuesday attributed to Chinese state-aligned actors.

The fake anchors -- for a fictious news outlet called Wolf News -- were created by artificial intelligence software and appeared in footage on social media that seemed to promote the interests of the Chinese Communist Party, US-based research firm Graphika said in its report.

"This is the first time we've seen a state-aligned operation use AI-generated video footage of a fictitious person to create deceptive political content," Jack Stubbs, vice president of intelligence at Graphika, told AFP.

In one video analyzed by Graphika, a fictious male anchor who calls himself Alex critiques US inaction over gun violence plaguing the country. In the second, a female anchor stresses the importance of "great power cooperation" between China and the United States.

Advancements in AI have stoked global alarm over the technology's potential for disinformation and misuse, with deepfake images created out of thin air and people shown mouthing things they never said.

There was no immediate comment from China on Graphika's report, which comes just weeks after Beijing adopted expansive rules to regulate deepfakes.

China enforced new rules last month that will require businesses offering deepfake services to obtain the real identities of their users. They also require deepfake content to be appropriately tagged to avoid "any confusion."

The Chinese government has warned that deepfakes present a "danger to national security and social stability."

Graphika's report said the two Wolf News anchors were almost certainly created using technology provided by the London-based AI startup Synthesia.

The website of Synthesia, which did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment, advertizes software for creating deepfake avatars "based on video footage of real actors."

Graphika said it discovered the deepfakes while tracking pro-China disinformation operations known as "spamouflage".

"Spamouflage is a pro-Chinese influence operation that predominantly amplifies low-quality political spam videos," said Stubbs.

"Despite using some sophisticated technology, these latest videos are much the same. This shows the limitations of using deepfakes in influence operations -- they are just one tool in an increasingly advanced toolbox."

ac/dw

Google targets low-income US women with ads for anti-abortion pregnancy centers, study shows


Poppy Noor
Mon, 6 February 2023 

Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

Low-income women in some cities are more likely than their wealthier counterparts to be targeted by Google ads promoting anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers when they search for abortion care, researchers at the Tech Transparency Project have found.

The research builds on previous findings detailing how Google directs users searching for abortion services to so-called crisis centers – organizations that have been known to pose as abortion clinics in an attempt to steer women away from accessing abortion care.

Related: Anti-abortion pregnancy centers are deceiving patients – and getting away with it

The researchers set up test accounts in three cities – Atlanta, Miami and Phoenix, Arizona – for women of three different income groups suggested by Google: average or lower-income rate, moderately high-income rate and high-income rate. They then entered search terms like “abortion clinic near me” and “I want an abortion”. In Phoenix, 56% of the search ads shown to the test accounts representing low- to moderate-income women were for crisis centers, compared with 41% of those served to moderately high-income test accounts and 7% to high-income accounts. In Atlanta, 42% of ads shown to the lower-income group were for crisis pregnancy centers, compared with 18% for moderately high-income women and 29% for high-income women.

In Arizona and Florida abortion is banned after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In Georgia, it is banned after six weeks, at which point many people do not know they are pregnant.

“By pointing low-income women to [crisis pregnancy centers] more frequently than higher-income women in states with restrictive laws, Google may delay these women from finding an actual abortion clinic to get a legal and safe abortion,” says Katie Paul, the director of the Tech Transparency Project.

“The time window is critical in some of these states,” she adds.

Lower-income women are the group least likely to be able to travel for abortion care because traveling can cost thousands of dollars in lost work, transportation, babysitting and accommodation fees.

“Lower-income women are being targeted, and they’re the ones that are going to suffer the most under these policies,” Paul says.

The results were not the same in all cities. In Miami, researchers saw the inverse result: high-income women were more likely to get ads from crisis centers than lower-income women. The researchers say they cannot be certain why Miami diverged from the other cities but speculate that crisis pregnancy centers might more actively target low-income women in more restrictive states. (While Arizona and Florida both ban abortion after 15 weeks, the former has more restrictions layered on the 15-week limit.)

While pregnancy crisis centers offer pregnant women resources such as diapers and pregnancy testing, they have also been known to employ a number of shady tactics to convince women seeking an abortion to keep their pregnancies. Those include posing as abortion clinics online though they do not offer abortion care, refusing pregnancy tests for women who say they intend to have an abortion and touting widely disputed research about abortion care to patients. Crisis centers, which go largely unregulated despite offering medical services, have been known to target low-income women precisely because they find it harder to travel out of state for abortion care.

Related: Anti-abortion group to pay Planned Parenthood nearly $1m over protest at clinic

Although companies buying ads with Google can selectively target the groups they want to reach – including by income – Paul adds that many users won’t be aware they are being targeted by Google in this way.

“Google has a large share of influence, particularly in the United States when people are trying to search for authoritative information. And people generally tend to consider Google’s search engine as an equaliser. They think the results they get are the results that everyone’s going to get. But that’s just not the case,” Paul says.

Last year, Google came under fire after a Tech Transparency Project investigation found the company was serving people with ads for pregnancy crisis centers suggesting they offer abortions even though they do not – violating the platform’s own rules on misleading advertisements.

Google has repeatedly been pressed to make changes to its search engine to curtail these issues. In 2022, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia and Representative Elissa Slotkin of Michigan wrote to the company twice, urging it to stop misdirecting users searching for abortion care to these crisis centers in Google Maps. The lawmakers also called on Google to limit the way crisis centers appear in search results and ads, and to add disclaimers clearly indicating whether a search result is an organization that provides abortions or not.

Related: ‘It’s a public health risk’: nurse decries infection control at US anti-abortion crisis center

Google responded by pledging to clearly label these facilities in the future. But researchers in the study also found a number of ads still being served to users suggesting centers offer abortion care when they do not.

In Phoenix, a Google search by a lower- or average-income test account for “Abortion fund” – an organization that provides financial and other forms of support for abortions – yielded an ad with the text “Free Abortion Help – 100% Confidential”, for a crisis center.

Similarly, when the lower- or average-income Atlanta test account searched for “Planned Parenthood Atlanta”, Google produced a single ad that read “Abortion Consultation for Free”, with an ad linking to a crisis pregnancy center called Health for Her in Atlanta. Although some of the ad results in the Tech Transparency Project’s study included a label stating “Does not provide abortions”, this one, along with several others, did not – in contravention of Google’s own labeling rules.

Slotkin said she was disappointed to learn the company is still failing to regulate crisis centers on its platform, despite having been in touch with them twice about the issue.

“Michigan has roughly 100 pregnancy crisis centers that explicitly do not provide abortions, and these clinics should not be listed among abortion providers,” Slotkin said.

“We sent a second letter in November because Google was still failing to consistently apply disclaimers to misleading ads. Despite our action – and assurance from Google that they would only show verified abortion providers when a woman was seeking the procedure – these findings from TTP [Tech Transparency Project] prove there’s clearly more work that needs to be done,” she said.

Senator Mark Warner’s office added: “Ads from ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ that reference ‘Free Abortion Help’ or ‘Abortion Consultation’ are obviously not in compliance with Google ads policies that forbid ads ‘that deceive users by excluding relevant product information or providing misleading information’. I urge Google to take action to prevent these deceptive advertising practices meant to trick users, especially low-income women.”

The Guardian contacted Google for comment and on Monday evening an unnamed spokesman sent a response.

“We don’t allow advertisers to specifically target a ‘low income’ bracket with ads, and we have strict rules about how location can be used to serve locally relevant ads. It’s important that people seeking abortion-related resources know what services an advertiser actually provides, so we require any organization that wants to target queries related to getting an abortion to be certified and clearly disclose whether they do or do not offer abortions. Last year, we updated these disclosures to make them more visible for users,” the response said.