NOW M&S BOYCOTTS GOOGLE
Web giant faces growing storm over fears that adverts for high street firms are funding terror
‘Can and must do more’
MARKS and Spencer last night pulled its advertising from Google’s YouTube as part of a growing boycott over its failure to remove extremist content.
The high street chain became the latest in a string of household names to suspend its marketing on the site because of concerns adverts are inadvertently funding terror groups.
Ministers last night faced demands to take action against the internet giant after the Mail found neo-Nazi videos remained on YouTube despite repeated warnings.
Fears about Google’s political influence also mounted after it emerged the firm’s bosses have met ministers at least once a month since the 2015 general election.
M&S yesterday followed HSBC, Lloyds, RBS, McDonald’s, L’Oreal, Audi, the BBC, O2, the Royal Mail and Domino’s in pulling its advertising from YouTube. Waitrose, Barclays, Vodafone and Sky are understood to be considering similar action.
YouTube hands £6.15 of advertising revenue for every 1,000 views to those who post videos, meaning household names have unintentionally been funnelling cash to terror groups, neo-Nazis and homophobes. Many videos generate millions of hits.
In a bid to halt the advertising exodus, Google has admitted it ‘can and must do more’, and has promised to make changes ‘in the coming weeks to give brands more control over where their ads appear.’
But an M&S spokesman said yesterday: ‘ In order to ensure brand safety, we are pausing activity across Google platforms whilst the matter is worked through.’ Google does not actively look for hate content on YouTube, instead waiting for users to flag it up. This has enraged many firms, which have found their brands promoted alongside terrorist videos.
The advertising boycott comes as the close links that Google has built with the top of Government are revealed today.
Theresa May, David Cameron and Culture Secretary Karen Bradley are among 13 ministers who have held dozens of meetings with the internet giant since the election.
The extent of the cosy relationship between Google and Whitehall will spark fresh concerns over the scale of the firm’s political clout.
In the 17 months between May 2015 and September last year, ministers held at least 27 meetings with the web company. Data for the past six months has yet to be published.
Mrs May met Google in July
Saturday’s Daily Mail 2015, when she was home secretary, while the firm attended a business roundtable with then prime minister Mr Cameron that October. Internet safety minister Baroness Shields – a former Google managing director – met with her old firm seven times, which included discussions on online extremism.
Baroness Shields, who was made a peer by Mr Cameron, is one of dozens of Google executives who have been through a ‘revolving door’ between the tech company and Government. The firm has hired at least 26 Whitehall staff, including No 10 aides, in the past decade.
Its staff have also headed in the oopposite direction. Nigel Huddleston left his job as the search engine’s industry head of travel after being elected as a Tory MP in 2015.
Rachel Whetstone, a former aide to ex-Tory leader Michael Howard – and friend of Mr Cameron – later worked for Google as head of international communications. She is also married to the former PM’s exstrategist, Steve Hilton.
The Tories lavished £312,000 on Google ads in the run-up to the election. Google chairman Eric Schmidt spent five years as a business adviser to Mr Cameron and previously gave the keynote speech at the Tory conference.
According to marketing experts, extremists have made £250,000 from adverts for household brands and public bodies hosted on Google.
The search giant has earned around £120,000.
One of the biggest earning hate preachers is the Egyptian cleric Wagdi Ghoneim, who is banned from visiting the UK. His YouTube channel has netted him around £65,000.
The boycott of YouTube started on Friday, when ministers suspended all government advertising on the videosharing platform until it could all but guarantee public money would not fund hate content.
Officials learned that adverts for public bodies such as UK Aid and the Metropolitan Police had been running alongside YouTube videos containing extremist material.