Google pledges to stop selling advertising next to extremist videos

GOOGLE has said it will allow “offensive” videos to stay on Youtube but pledged not to allow adverts to be sold alongside them.

The internet search engine has been accused of “profiting from hatred” following concerns that adverts are appearing alongside extremist material on its Youtube platform.

Yesterday it pledged to take four steps in the fight against online terrorism, including the faster detection of extremist content, more experts, tougher standards and an expansion of counter-radicalisation work.

The technology giant announced that it will pay 50 charities to find extremist content rather than rely on computers to spot it. It said it was taking a tougher stance on films that do not clearly violate their policies, including videos that contain “inflammatory religious or supremacist content”, to make them harder to find on the web.

These videos will instead appear behind a warning and will not be “monetised, recommended or eligible for comments or user endorsements”.

Kent Walker, a senior vice president of Google, said: “We think this strikes the right balance between free expression and access to information without promoting extremely offensive viewpoints.” It comes after the company was forced to apologise after the growing scandal over extremist videos on Youtube led to a series of companies pulling their adverts.

Google insisted that more videos that support terrorism will be taken down. It added that Youtube will also make a greater effort to redirect potential terrorist recruits towards anti-terrorist videos.