Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 23 april 2018

After Facebook scrutiny, is Google next?

By RYAN NAKASHIMA and say, is that advertisers lured
MATT O'BRIEN by the reach and targeting
AP Technology Writers capability of online plat-
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) forms can mistakenly ex-
— Facebook has taken pect the same standards
the lion's share of scrutiny for decency on network
from Congress and the me- TV will apply online. In the
dia about data-handling same way, broadcast TV
practices that allow savvy rules that require transpar-
marketers and political ency about political ad
agents to target specific buyers are absent on the
audiences, but it's far from web.
alone. YouTube, Google "There have always been
and Twitter also have giant regulations regarding ap-
platforms awash in more propriate conduct in con-
videos, posts and pages tent," says Robert Passikoff,
than any set of human president of Brand Keys
eyes could ever check. Inc., a New York customer
Their methods of serving research firm. Regulating
ads against this sea of con- content on the internet is
tent may come under the one area "that has gotten
microscope next. This photo combo of images shows, clockwise, from upper left: a Google sign, the Twitter app, away from everyone."
Advertising and privacy ex- YouTube TV logo and the Facebook app. Also absent from the in-
perts say a backlash is inev- Associated Press ternet are many of the
itable against a "Wild West" rules that govern children's
internet that has escaped owned YouTube's adver- that this did not happen," Tube to expand its filters to programming on televi-
scrutiny before. There con- tising and data collection Fox said, adding it has exclude certain topics and sion sets. TV networks, for
tinues to be a steady bar- practices earlier this month. asked for a refund of any keywords. instance, are allowed to
rage of new examples YouTube has repeatedly money shared with the "ab- On the other hand, Procter air commercial breaks but
where unsuspecting adver- outlined the ways it at- horrent channel." & Gamble, which had kept cannot use kids' characters
tisers had their brands asso- tempts to flag and delete YouTube said Friday that its ads off of YouTube since to advertise products. Such
ciated with extremist con- hateful, violent, sexually ex- it has made "significant March 2017, said it had "host-selling" runs rampant
tent on major platforms. plicit or harmful videos, but changes to how we ap- come back to the platform on internet services such as
In the latest discovery, CNN its screening efforts have proach monetization" with but drastically pared back YouTube.
reported that it found more often missed the mark. "stricter policies, better the channels it would ad- Action to remove ads from
than 300 retail brands, gov- It also allows advertisers controls and greater trans- vertise on to under 10,000. It inappropriate content is
ernment agencies and avoid running ads on sensi- parency" and said it allows has worked on its own, with mostly reactive because
technology companies tive content — like news or advertisers to exclude cer- third parties, and with You- of lack of upfront control
had their ads run on You- politics — that don't violate tain channels from ads. It Tube to create its restrictive of what gets uploaded,
Tube channels that pro- YouTube guidelines but also removes ads when it's list. and it generally takes the
moted white nationalists, don't fit with a company's notified of problems run- That's just a fraction of the mass threat of boycott to
Nazis, conspiracy theories brand. Those methods ap- ning beside content that some 3 million YouTube get advertisers to demand
and North Korean propa- pear to have failed. doesn't comply with its poli- channels in the U.S. that changes, according to
ganda. "YouTube has once again cies. "We are committed to accept ads, and is even BrandSimple consultant Al-
Child advocates have failed to correctly filter working with our advertisers more stringent than You- len Adamson. "The social
also raised alarms about channels out of our mar- and getting this right." Tube's "Google Preferred" media backlash is what
the ease with which smart- keting buys," said a state- So far, just one major ad- lineup that focuses on the you're worried about," he
phone-equipped children ment Friday from 20th Cen- vertiser — Baltimore-based top most popular 5 percent said.
are exposed to inappropri- tury Fox Film, which learned retailer Under Armour — of videos. At the same time, politi-
ate videos and deceptive that its ads were running on had said it had withdrawn The CNN report was "an il- cians are having trouble
advertising. videos posted by a self-de- its advertising in the wake lustration of exactly why keeping up with the chang-
"I absolutely think that scribed Nazi. YouTube has of the CNN report, though we needed to go above ing landscape, evident
Google is next and long since deleted the offend- the lull lasted only a few and beyond just what You- by how ill-informed many
overdue," said Josh Go- ing channel, but the Hol- days last week when it was Tube's plans were and why senators and congresspeo-
lin, director of the Boston- lywood firm says it has un- first notified of the problem. we needed to take more ple appeared during ques-
based Campaign for a answered questions about After its shoe commercial control of where our ads tioning of Facebook CEO
Commercial-Free Child- how it happened in the first turned up on a channel were showing up," said Mark Zuckerberg earlier this
hood, which asked the place. known for espousing white P&G spokeswoman Tressie month. "It's going to take
Federal Trade Commission "All of our filters were in nationalist beliefs, Under Rose. quite some time to sort that
to investigate Google- place in order to ensure Armour worked with You- The big problem, experts out."q