Beware: YouTube ‘bad actors’
YOUTUBE boss Susan Wojcicki gave a quick mea culpa to the ad community — again.
On Tuesday, the CEO spent a few minutes addressing the controversy surrounding offensive content found on its platform, as well as the skirmish regarding influencers who buy their followers.
Calling them “bad actors,” the CEO, appearing on a panel here, pledged to provide more transparency regarding influencers who trade their social following for advertising dollars.
She also addressed an issue haunting brands, namely that their ads may appear alongside violent or sexually explicit content. As a result, the company is introducing new tools to police the social platform.
“There’s no playbook on how to have content and policies for the scale that we operate,” Wojcicki said. “The way that I think about it is it’s very important that when we look back at this event, when we look back at this time in history, that we are on the right side of history.”
Later, the CEO rolled out details on new app YouTube Music, which launched in 17 countries this week. Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s global head of content, took the stage and perhaps raised an eyebrow or two by explaining that the music industry and YouTube have a “new love affair.” The creative community needs for many distributors to become safe for artists, Cohen said.