AT&T Joins Latest Brand Pullback From YouTube Over 'Unsafe' Content
February 21 2019 - 3:23PM
Dow Jones News
By Nat Ives
AT&T Inc. is the latest to join a growing group of marketers
halting their advertising on YouTube after it was found that the
site served ads near inappropriate content again, putting pressure
on the video platform to contain any new brand revolt.
"Until Google can protect our brand from offensive content of
any kind, we are removing all advertising from YouTube," an
AT&T spokesman said in a statement on Thursday.
AT&T's retreat is notable because it was one of the last
major marketers to resume advertising on YouTube, part of Alphabet
Inc.'s Google, after a number of them pulled out in 2017 over
revelations that their ads there were running near offensive
videos. AT&T said in January that it had taken time to be
confident that similar problems wouldn't recur.
Marketers including Clorox Co., Nestlé SA, McDonald's Corp. and
"Fortnite" publisher Epic Games Inc. halted their YouTube
advertising on Wednesday following reports that their ads were
appearing next to videos of young girls that were marred by
inappropriate user comments.
"What is happening with these videos is deeply disturbing," said
Clorox Chief Marketing Officer Stacey Grier in a statement. "We
have paused our advertising on YouTube while Google addresses the
situation.
Google executives tried to stem the damage Wednesday by
arranging a conference call with marketers and ad buyers describing
the steps they had taken to address the problem and promising an
update within 24 hours.
On Thursday, YouTube distributed a memo that said it had
suspended comments on tens of millions of videos that "are likely
innocent but could be subject to predatory comments," reduced the
"discoverability" of similar videos, restricted ads from millions
of videos, and terminated the accounts of "bad actors," referring
some of them to law enforcement and the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children.
YouTube said other efforts in progress include working on a tool
to better spot predatory comments, developing ways to help YouTube
channel owners monitor comments more effectively, trying to make it
harder to discover the kind of videos in question and reviewing ad
buyers' controls for channels that feature minors.
"We took immediate action by deleting accounts and channels,
reporting illegal activity to authorities and disabling comments on
tens of millions of videos that include minors," a YouTube
spokeswoman said in a statement. "There's more to be done, and we
continue to work to improve and catch abuse more quickly."
Epic Games, which said Wednesday that it had asked YouTube what
it would do to eliminate the inappropriate content from its
service, said Thursday that it had no further comment. McDonald's
said Thursday that it had no further comment on the issue. A Nestlé
representative didn't respond to a request for comment.
Write to Nat Ives at nat.ives@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 21, 2019 15:08 ET (20:08 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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