AT&T on Thursday pulled its advertising from Google-owned YouTube after a blogger demonstrated how comments on the platform were being used by a “soft-core pedophelia ring” to share child exploitation videos. This comes after Disney, Epic Games and Nestle made similar moves Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported.
“Until Google can protect our brand from offensive content of any kind, we are removing all advertising from YouTube,” an AT&T representative said.
The advertising pause followed a video posted on Sunday in which blogger Matt Watson demonstrated how YouTube comments were being used to identify parts of videos that feature children in “compromising” or “sexually implicit” positions. Watson also demonstrated how YouTube’s algorithm would recommend similar videos once a user had clicked on one of these kinds of videos.
Advertisements for the three companies, as well as others, played before some of the videos of minors, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. YouTube’s critics have said they’re fed up with the company’s “whack-a-mole approach” to child safety.
YouTube has deleted accounts and channels, removed comments that violate its policies, and reported some of the incidents to authorities, a YouTube representative told CNET.
“Any content, including comments, that endangers minors is abhorrent, and we have clear policies prohibiting this on YouTube,” the representative said.
The total amount spent on ads for the videos mentioned was less than $8,000 in the last 60 days, a YouTube spokeswoman told Bloomberg.
An “extremely low volume” of ads from Nestle appeared on YouTube videos with inappropriate comments, according to a representative for the food maker. Nestle will revise its decision to pause advertising on YouTube “upon completion of current measures being taken by Google to ensure Nestle advertising standards are met,” the Nestle representative said.
An Epic Games representative confirmed the company has paused its advertising on YouTube. “We have reached out to Google/YouTube to determine actions they’ll take to eliminate this type of content from their service,” the representative said.
Disney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Watson, who said in his video that he had written a report about his discovery, didn’t immediately respond to a direct message on Twitter.
This is isn’t the first time companies have distanced themselves from the company. In 2017, companies including Walmart, PepsiCo and Dish Network pulled their ads from YouTube after they appeared alongside videos sharing racist and anti-Semitic views. YouTube has also been criticized for failing to quickly remove videos featuring disturbing content aimed at children.
First published Feb. 20 at 1:59 p.m. PT.
Update Feb. 21 at 12:52 p.m. and 1:28 p.m. PT: Adds comment from Epic Games and AT&T.
