The huge advertising scandal was revealed over the weekend, when it was found that millions of ads were found being shown next to extremist and rape videos run on Google and YouTube.
Potentially with billions of dollars at stake, everyone from the UK Government, the Scottish Government to major agencies like Havas have immediately suspended all advertising buys on Google and YouTube for the indefinite future.
The firm said it had taken the step after talks with Google had broken down because the tech company had been ‘unable to provide specific reassurances, policy and guarantees that their video or display content is classified either quickly enough or with the correct filters’.
Havas — whose UK advertising clients include the British government’s Royal Mail and BBC TV network, Domino’s Pizza and Hyundai — said it was considering a global ban on YouTube’s platform after Google admitted it couldn’t guarantee that ads wouldn’t get displayed next to unpalatable content.
The British Cabinet Office announced that it had placed temporary restrictions on the video site “pending reassurances from Google that Government messages can be delivered in a safe and appropriate way”.
Rape apologists, anti-Semites and hate preachers had received payouts from publicly funded Google ad campaigns, according to an investigation by the Times, and Google had done nothing to police or even condemn the actions. They continued to pay out money to extremists, even though it was possible the money was going directly to ISIS and other groups.
Similarly, the Guardian newspaper online has withdrawn all its online advertising from Google and YouTube after the scandal broke. According to the paper, “Ads for the Guardian’s membership scheme are understood to have been placed alongside a range of extremist material after an agency acting on the media group’s behalf used Google’s AdX ad exchange.”
A representative told PACEDm, “Google was unable to promise not only that our advertising would not show up to inappropriate material, but worse, that they would stop distributing videos from hate-mongers.”
According to HeatStreet:
Google is refusing to remove a YouTube video featuring David Duke that attacks Jews, despite admitting that the content is “anti-semitic, deeply offensive and shocking.” British MPs criticized Google after it claimed that the video entitled “Jews admit organizing white genocide” did not breach its rules on hate speech.
Also YouTube has refused to remove videos of hate preacher Anjem Choudary, despite him being convicted of supporting ISIS. Last year Choudary and co-defendant Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, 33, were found guilty of inviting support for ISIS.
