Google to revamp policies, hire staff
after UK ad scandal
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[March 21, 2017]
By Kate Holton
LONDON (Reuters) - Google <GOOGL.O> vowed
on Tuesday to police its websites better by ramping up staff numbers and
overhauling its policies after several companies deserted the internet
giant for failing to keep their adverts off hate-filled videos.
Google has found itself at the center of a British storm in recent days
after major companies from supermarkets to banks and consumer groups
pulled their adverts from its YouTube site after they appeared alongside
videos carrying homophobic and anti-Semitic messages.
Alphabet's Google launched a review of the problem on Friday, apologized
on Monday and said on Tuesday it had revamped its policies to give
advertisers more control.
The company, which had said it struggled to monitor the 400 hours of
video uploaded to YouTube every minute, said it would hire significantly
more staff and speed up the process of removing ads from hateful and
offensive content that attacks people based on their race, religion or
gender.
"We believe the combination of these new policies and controls will
significantly strengthen our ability to help advertisers reach audiences
at scale, while respecting their values," Philipp Schindler, Google's
chief business officer, said in a blog.
Britain is Google's largest market outside the United States, generating
$7.8 billion mainly from advertising in 2016, or nearly 9 percent of the
U.S. giant's global revenue.
Besides well-known British brands pulling the plug, some of the world's
biggest advertising companies responsible for placing vast amounts of
marketing material for clients, said they were reviewing how they worked
with Google.
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Google said the YouTube team was looking at changing its existing
guidelines on what content should be allowed on the platform and
giving more visibility to advertisers and agencies so they can see
where adverts are appearing.
"We'll be hiring significant numbers of people and developing new
tools powered by our latest advancements in Artificial Intelligence
and machine learning to increase our capacity to review questionable
content for advertising," Schindler said.
Where adverts were found next to videos advocating extremism,
YouTube will seek to resolve the case in less than a few hours.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Mar/21/images/ads/current/ldn_sda_062409.png)
The boycott is the latest clash between advertising companies, media
publishers and the internet giants that have built up dominant
positions in digital advertising by offering not only huge audiences
but also the ability to apply their user data to make ads more
targeted and relevant.
Analysts have said the scandal could benefit traditional media
publishers such as newspapers and broadcasters, which can promote
their services as a trusted and safe online platform.
(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Mark Potter)
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