BBC and Whitehall pull ads from the websites of hate
A series of organisations pulled their advertising from Google’s YouTube platform yesterday after an investigation found many were being run alongside ‘hate crime’ videos.
The Government, the BBC, Channel 4 and Transport for London were among those who suspended advertising after it emerged extremist groups were profiting from the controversial arrangement.
And last night they were followed by McDonalds, L’Oreal and sainsbury’s, it was reported.
Google, which owns YouTube, hands a slice of the revenue generated by adverts to those who post the videos they run alongside. it means terror groups, neoNazis and homophobes who upload material to the site are pocketing cash from Government agencies and other household names.
An investigation by The Times yesterday found that the Home Office, royal Navy and royal Air Force all had advertising promotions placed beside video rants from ‘shock-jock’ Michael savage, who infamously told one gay caller he should ‘get Aids and die’.
TfL, which is part-funded by the Government, had adverts running alongside videos by Holocaust denier and antisemitic conspiracy theorist David Duke, who is a former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Metropolitan Police promo-
‘Highly offensive YouTube material’
tions appeared alongside Hizb ut-Tahrir, an islamic organisation calling for the a global caliphate under sharia law.
The investigation also found that adverts for the BBC and Channel 4 appeared with videos by egyptian hate preacher Wagdi Ghoneim.
Ghoneim is banned from entering the UK after he reportedly praised Osama bin Laden as a ‘martyr’ and ‘hero’.
Last night The Times also reported that one of the world’s biggest advertising agencies, Havas, pulled hundreds of its British clients – including O2, the royal Mail and Domino’s – out of Google’s advertising network.
None of the organisations knew the adverts would appear alongside extremist content, as they are placed by third party agencies that use complex computer software rather than human judgment to select where promotions appear.
in theory, advertisers can blacklist extremist uploaders. But in practice this often does not happen because of a flaw in the process that relies on the video creators accurately categorising their uploads – which in the case of extremist content is extremely rare.
individuals or groups posting the videos take a cut of the advertising revenue worth up to £6.15 for every 1,000 views. Many of the hate videos generate millions of hits.
Google does not actively look for hate content on YouTube, instead waiting for users to flag it up. it said that with 400 hours of video uploaded every minute, it would be impossible to proactively police.
This has enraged many firms, which find their brand promoted alongside terrorists. Last month luxury holiday operator sandals resorts said it was ‘appalled’ to discover it had been advertised next to a video promoting east African jihadist group Al shabaab. The network, which is affiliated to Al Qaeda, has plotted a string of atrocities against UK targets and was responsible for the 2013 shopping centre attack in Nairobi that killed 67 people.
No 10 yesterday vowed no more Whitehall adverts would be placed on YouTube until it proved it had the ‘technical expertise’ to ensure they were not shown in the wrong place.
The BBC and TfL suspended advertising – as did the Guardian after a promotion appeared with a video from Us ‘pick-up artist’ roosh V, who has been accused of promoting rape. Channel 4 said it has removed all its advertising from YouTube as it is not satisfied it is a ‘safe environment’. spokesman Dan Brooke said what had happened was ‘a direct contravention of assurances our media buying agency had received on our behalf from YouTube’.
Google’s managing director ronan Harris said the firm knows ‘we can and must do more’, adding it spends millions each year to ‘ prevent bad advertising practices’.
He said: ‘We’ve begun a thorough review of our ads policies and brand controls, and we will be making changes in the coming weeks to give brands more control over where their ads appear across YouTube and the Google Display Network.’