Now, AT&T and Verizon have pulled their ads from YouTube
YouTube took another big hit to its ad business this week, as both AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. pulled their ads from the video sharing platform amid growing concerns that they are inadvertently funding extremism.
Last week, The Times reported that a number of ads paid for by the U.K. government, and by extension the U.K. taxpayers, had been displayed alongside videos from extremist YouTube channels, which included “rape apologists, anti-Semites and banned hate preachers.”
Following the report, the U.K. pulled all government ads from YouTube, and several other advertisers followed suit. Google has since revealed some of its plans to prevent ads from supporting extremist content in the future, but it seems that advertisers’ trust is still shaken in the platform.
“We are deeply concerned that our ads may have appeared alongside YouTube content promoting terrorism and hate,” an AT&T spokesperson told Recode Wednesday. “Until Google can ensure this won’t happen again, we are removing our ads from Google’s non-search platforms.”
Verizon voiced similar concerns in its statement: “Verizon is one of the largest advertisers in the world, and one of the most respected brands. We take careful measure to ensure our brand is not impacted negatively. Once we were notified that our ads were appearing on non-sanctioned websites, we took immediate action to suspend this type of ad placement and launched an investigation. We are working with all of our digital advertising partners to understand the weak links so we can prevent this from happening in the future.”
Unfortunately, it is unlikely that Google will be able to find an easy solution to its problem, and the company has itself admitted that keeping up with all of the ads on YouTube is a challenge. In a recent blog post by Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler, Google highlighted the sheer number of videos and ads on YouTube, as well as the difficulty in distinguishing between content that is merely controversial and content that violates its policies.
“We have a responsibility to protect this vibrant, creative world—from emerging creators to established publishers—even when we don’t always agree with the views being expressed,” Schindler said in the post.
Google would not comment on the latest brands pulling their ads from YouTube, but the company reaffirmed its commitment to improving its ad platform.
“We don’t comment on individual customers but as announced, we’ve begun an extensive review of our advertising policies and have made a public commitment to put in place changes that give brands more control over where their ads appear,” a Google spokesperson said. “We’re also raising the bar for our ads policies to further safeguard our advertisers’ brands.”
Photo: Rego – d4u.hu via photopin cc
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