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Google has failed to convince major brands (such as AT&T, Verizon, Enterprise Holdings, Volkswagen, and Tesco) to continue advertising on YouTube, following the "revelation" that ads can appear next to extremist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, raunchy, etc. content. From Google's Tuesday response:
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. We'll also tighten safeguards to ensure that ads show up only against legitimate creators in our YouTube Partner Program—as opposed to those who impersonate other channels or violate our community guidelines. Finally, we won't stop at taking down ads. 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. [...] We're changing the default settings for ads so that they show on content that meets a higher level of brand safety and excludes potentially objectionable content that advertisers may prefer not to advertise against. Brands can opt in to advertise on broader types of content if they choose.
The growing boycott started in the UK:
On Friday, the U.K. arm of the Havas agency, whose clients include the BBC and Royal Mail, said it would halt spending on YouTube and Web display ads in Google's digital advertising network. In doing so, Havas UK CEO Paul Frampton cited a duty to protect clients and "ensure their brands are not at all compromised" by appearing alongside or seeming to sponsor inappropriate content. The decision by a global marketing group with a U.K. digital budget of more than $200 million to put its dealings with Google on "pause" followed a recent controversy over YouTube star Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg, who lost a lucrative production contract with Maker Studios and its owner, Walt Disney Co., over "a series of anti-Semitic jokes and Nazi-related images in his videos," as the Two-way reported. As the BBC reports, "Several high profile companies, including Marks and Spencer, Audi, RBS and L'Oreal, have pulled online advertising from YouTube."
Google's Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler also promised to develop "new tools powered by our latest advancements in AI and machine learning to increase our capacity to review questionable content for advertising".
(Score: 5, Interesting) by ShadowSystems on Sunday March 26 2017, @02:35AM (14 children)
I can visit Youtube as a guest (not logging in) & view hours of uninterrupted content that includes foul language, bouncing boobs, gratuitous violence, & damn-near every depravity imaginable (don't look at me, I was searching for porn I swear! I have no idea how that cat video got there!), and never. ever. ever. see a single bloody ad.
But the moment Youtube throws up a "content warning! You need to sign in to see this" & I log in, I'm *FLOODED* with ads.
Every. single. video. from the point I log in gets me swamped in ads.
To add insult to injury it's often the EXACT. SAME. AD. every single time.
How many times do I have to skip an add about a car insurance company? You're obviously not basing it on my profile data or you would know I'm *BLIND* and can't drive any longer.
So if I refuse to log in I don't get shown ads, but if I do log in then you flood me with them. Please remind me what benefit I get out of logging in?
It's obviously not targeted ads because your aim is completely fekkin' wrong.
I've tried to set my Google ad prefs but the pages are such a fustercluck navigation that I can never get to anything that plainly gives me a set of clearly identified check boxes with clearly labeled options.
"Check box: Do you want to see ads about auto insurance? Currently unchecked." would be fekkin' helpful.
I tend to refuse to log in. I'll skip the video that generated the content warning, do a search for the video title, find a non-blocked copy elsewhere (on Youtube!), & keep going.
No ads, no crap, no fuss.
Log in, get ads, get annoyed, & eventually get so pissed off that I close the Youtube tab to go elsewhere.
Case in point for the logging in thing: go watch episodes of Foamy the Angry Squirrel.
You can watch the first three or four SEASONS worth of them in a single playlist without ever getting an ad, but the moment the "Jumprope" one gets to the front, up comes the content warning & out come the ads.
Search for the episode, launch it from the other Youtube search result hits, & OOPS no more content warning, no ads, & no crap.
Unless & until Youtube fixes the content system to *actually* flag content that includes foul language, violence, sex, drugs, etc, it's utterly useless for anything other than to get you to log in so they can maul you with ads.
As Foamy would say, "Fuck that! I've got better shit to do!"
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @02:42AM
Adblock can be used on YouTube and no videos refuse to load because of it... Currently. I'm waiting for the day YouTube Red gives way to YouTube Scriptwall.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @02:44AM
Here's what I do... If an advertisement gets past Scriptblock/uBlock on any website, I either don't go back to that site again or never do business with the advertiser.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @03:01AM (2 children)
youtube-dl gets around the "content warning! You need to sign in to see this" nonsense, last I looked. Youtube's built-in video player is garbage, honestly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @03:29AM
You can also change youtube to listenonrepeat in the URL.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @07:33AM
The embedded URL gets past the content warning as well.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @04:10AM (4 children)
If you get ads on youtube you're using the internet wrong.
(Score: 1) by ShadowSystems on Sunday March 26 2017, @04:42AM (3 children)
And if you can't maintain a cell signal on your Apple phone it's because you're holding it wrong?
Jackass.
I use IE11 because I have to, not because I want to; everything else causes my Screen Reader Environment (SRE) to crap itself.
FireFox causes an intercept error with something inside the SRE that causes the SRE to no longer be able to read the screen. Solution is to shut down the browser, reboot the SRE, & use a different browser. Yes I've told the devs, given a copy of the error logs, & have yet to hear back.
PaleMoon isn't accessible *at all*. They physicly *removed the functionality* from their fork & claim it's to "ensure compatability". PM can KMMFA.
Safari on Windows sucks so bad it's not even funny. When it takes *minutes* to finish doing whatever it's doing between launch & giving me control, locking up my system until it finishes, I uninstalled it rather than keep fighting with it.
Opera can't seem to make up it's mind if it wants to let my SRE use it's native keyboard shortcuts or if the browser wants to co-opt them for it's own use. Try to get the SRE to read a web page & it's a crap shoot if the key command works or not. Again, uninstalled it rather than keep taking the migraine meds.
So that leaves IE11 on my Win7Pro64 box. I don't have much of a choice.
This also explains why I can't use any of the plugins mentioned earlier. If they don't have a version for IE then there's SFA I can do to install them.
So please, nice anonymous coward, tell me again how I'm using the internet wrong?
Perhaps you MIGHT want to THINK about your answer before you knee-jerk your head up your ass, M'kay?
*Sigh*
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @04:53AM
You can use a proxy to block the ads.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @07:33AM (1 child)
I noticed that all the ads went away after using the hosts file at the following link. It's old school but it works great and browser independent...
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm [mvps.org]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @08:37PM
It's so nice to see you again, APK!
I thought you'd crawled back into your hole permanently.
Please stick around and post all your ridiculous drivel so we can go back to laughing at you to your face instead of behind your back.
Kisses, honey!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @04:22AM
You might need to buy insurance for your kid. Think you don't have a kid? Maybe youtube knows something you don't know. (perhaps you'll meet him next week)
Also, you could have a car that you just keep parked at your house. It still needs insurance for flood, fire, and theft. Maybe you keep a Buggati Veyron to show off a bit. Maybe you keep a minivan to sleep in. Maybe you use a car for the radio and CD player. Maybe you need a car for the 12-volt car power sockets, since that is the only adapter you have for charging your cell phone.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @06:35AM (1 child)
you watch videos of bouncing boobs on youtube even though you've gone blind? old habits die hard.
(Score: 3, Touché) by darkfeline on Monday March 27 2017, @03:43AM
One guess as to how he ended up blind.
/joke
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Sunday March 26 2017, @07:36AM
Do you uses something like privacy badger?
I found that ads did not display on a lot of websites if you disabled tracking.