Alex Jones’ channel, which has over 2 million subscribers, was then targeted by Media Matters hoping to get all advertisements removed. They wrote up an entire article titled, “Google Is Funding Alex Jones’ Harassment And Hate On YouTube” where they claimed his videos, “often violate YouTube’s policies for its advertising partners,” and “frequently appear with ads for brands such as Trivago, PlayStation, and a corporation that is contracted by the state of Hawaii to promote tourism.”554
They went on to say, “Jones has also made numerous disparaging comments about LGBTQ people,” and that, “He has also said that Chelsea Clinton looks like Mister Ed the Horse and made numerous other sexist comments about women and their looks.”555 They concluded, “It would appear to be consistent with YouTube’s existing policies to pull advertising from Jones’ videos. If YouTube fails to take action, advertisers can request to have their ads removed from videos appearing on Jones’ channel.”556
After The Wall Street Journal was done investigating PewDiePie and falsely claimed he was posting ‘racist and ‘anti-Semitic’ videos, they continued searching for ‘offensive’ content that had advertisements on it. They found two racist videos from unknown random channels which were monetized and had Coca-Cola ads running before they played, and instead of just doing a story about this, they contacted Coca-Cola to get a statement from them, or as many believe, to bully the company into pulling their advertising from YouTube.
Jack Nicas, who wrote the story, appeared to brag on Twitter, saying, “Google has lost $26B in market value over this ad controversy in the past week.”557 And later tweeted, “Update: Coca-Cola is pulling all non-search ads with Google in response to our story. Two separate Coke ads played before this racist video.”558
The Daily Mail opined that, “Netflix, Guess, Trivago, Opodo, Asus and SunLife insurance have adverts alongside videos published by conspiracy theorists on Google’s YouTube platform.”559 The Guardian then reported, “PepsiCo, Walmart Stores and Starbucks on Friday confirmed that they have also suspended their advertising on YouTube after the Wall Street Journal found Google’s automated programs placed their brands on five videos containing racist content. AT&T, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, Volkswagen and several other companies pulled ads earlier this week.”560
Walmart released a statement saying, “The content with which we are being associated is appalling and completely against our company values.”561 AT&T said, “We are deeply concerned that our ads may have appeared alongside YouTube content promoting terrorism and hate. Until Google can ensure this won’t happen again, we are removing our ads from Google’s non-search platforms.”562
Of course, these same brands don’t have a problem advertising on network television or cable shows that glorify crime, sex, and drugs. When CNN goes to a commercial after breaking news about the latest mass shooting or terrorist attack, these brands don’t have a problem being associated with that. Local news stations across the country report on horrific crimes like rape, child abuse, and murder every single night, and then casually cut to a commercial paid for by these same mega corporations.
Since cable news channels have many of the same advertisers which are used as pre-roll ads before YouTube videos, why are companies okay with running their ads on graphic and disturbing stories on cable news and adult dramas, but not on smaller independent YouTube channels? Another “investigation” into the matter by The Australian Financial Review reported, “a number of local companies◦— including Holden, Kia, Wesfarmers-owned hardware retailer Bunnings and electronics chain JB Hi-Fi◦— had video advertisements playing in front of men’s rights and anti-feminist content on YouTube.”563 It appears they contacted Kia to tattle, and the company’s spokesman said, “As of now, programmatic advertising has been suspended until such time as we can meet with Google to further clarify the application of this advertising.”564
The Financial Review’s report said, “The series of videos by one YouTube user centered around a men’s rights movement known as MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way)◦— a group of straight men who will not date women and believe feminism has ruined society… One included an edited segment from Ten Network’s Studio 10 that showed an interview with controversial author Peter Lloyd, who wrote the book Stand by Your Manhood. The video insults the Ten hosts, including calling former Australian of the Year Ita Buttrose a ‘hag.’”565
It’s completely understandable that companies wouldn’t want their ads to run on ISIS propaganda videos, or porn, but these isolated instances of ‘racist’ videos being monetized that were dug up by the papers caused the entire Ad Sense program to be put under a microscope. For over a decade since the monetization program had been put in place YouTube was like the wild west, where (within reason) just about any video could be monetized and advertisers didn’t care about the content, but almost overnight all that changed.
Google’s chief business officer Philipp Schindler explained that, “It has always been a small problem” with a “very very very” few number of ads being shown on videos that aren’t “brand-safe” but “over the last few weeks, someone has decided to put a bit more of a spotlight on the problem.”566
A Google spokesperson said that the error rate was less than 1/1000th of a percent, meaning that their algorithms automatically identified most racist or ‘objectionable’ content and wouldn’t place advertisements on it.567 But YouTube immediately announced that changes were coming to the platform and they would begin removing advertisements on all ‘non advertiser- friendly’ content (like mine). They posted a letter for their advertisers saying, “Recently, we had a number of cases where brands’ ads appeared on content that was not aligned with their values. For this, we deeply apologize. We know that this is unacceptable to the advertisers and agencies who put their trust in us. That’s why we’ve been conducting an extensive review of our advertising policies and tools, and why we made a public commitment last week to put in place changes that would give brands more control over where their ads appear.”568
“We know advertisers don’t want their ads next to content that doesn’t align with their values. So starting today, we’re taking a tougher stance on hateful, offensive and derogatory content. “This includes removing ads more effectively from content that is attacking or harassing people based on their race, religion, gender or similar categories. This change will enable us to take action, where appropriate, on a larger set of ads and sites.”
It concluded saying, “The YouTube team is taking a hard look at our existing community guidelines to determine what content is allowed on the platform◦— not just what content can be monetized.”569
And then the mass demonetization began. On March 29th 2017, Ethan Klein of H3H3 Productions, a channel with over 3 million subscribers, tweeted that, “YouTube has demonetized everything from ‘Vape Nation’ to ‘Thank You for 3 million’ with no notification and no option to appeal.”570 Jenna Marbles, who has over 17 million subscribers, responded “I’ve also had a bizarre selection of videos demonetized with no notification or option to appeal.”571