Google boss apologizes: More and more companies are suspending ads because of hate videos

Google’s European boss has apologised for online advertising appearing alongside extremist material, while major companies such as M&S are withdrawing their ads from the internet giant.

Matt Brittin, the company’s head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said: “We are sorry for everyone affected.”

He made the comments at an industry conference after a number of well-known British brands pulled their advertising because of concerns about content appearing on Google’s YouTube platform.

M&S said: “To ensure brand safety, we are pausing activity across all Google platforms while the matter is being addressed.”

Go Ape – the outdoor adventure company – said it had stopped advertising on YouTube after Sky News business correspondent Adam Parsons alerted the company that its ads were appearing alongside videos from the English Defence League.

For the same reason, the investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown (Frankfurt: DMB.F – News) also withdrew its advertisements.

Even the government (Taiwan OTC: 6436.TWO – News) has done the same, while global advertising giant Havas (LSE: 0MGT.L – News), which buys advertising space for a number of major companies, stopped advertising last week.

:: What the companies say

Other big names taking similar action include McDonald’s UK, Tesco (Frankfurt: 852647 – News) and Sainsbury’s (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS – News), Audi UK and L’Oreal in the UK and Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD – News), and retail banks Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L – News), HSBC and Lloyds.

Meanwhile, some companies, including Barclays (LSE: BARC.L – News), are considering what to do – although Barclays is not currently advertising on YouTube or Google.

Sky (Frankfurt: 893517 – Nachrichten), owner of Sky News, said: “It is completely unacceptable for ads to appear next to inappropriate content. We are speaking to Google to find out what they are doing to stop this.”

According to Brittin, Google has already spent millions of dollars and employed thousands of people to ensure that “bad advertising does not get through,” and this has worked well “in the vast majority of cases.”

However, he acknowledged that there was still room for improvement and said a review that had been ongoing “for some time” would be accelerated.

He said Google is trying to better define hate speech and inflammatory content, simplify controls for advertisers and push its efforts to remove “bad content” further and faster – given that 400 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

Last week, media agency GroupM, part of the world’s largest advertising agency WPP (Frankfurt: A1J2BZ – News), called on Google to apologize to customers and advertisers who had seen inappropriate content on YouTube.

In addition, the company has written to customers, explaining the potential risks to their brands and asking them how they plan to respond.

MPs (BSE: MPSLTD.BO – News) recently said Google is “still profiting from hate” after failing to remove videos from groups allegedly linked to terrorism.

Google has been summoned to appear before Cabinet Office ministers on Friday.

Sky News has learned that the company has apologised to senior government officials and pledged to review its advertising systems.

Google has been asked to return for another meeting this week to outline its planned actions.

Yvette Cooper, MP and chair of the Home Affairs Committee, said Google’s failure to remove the hate videos was “frankly astonishing”.

Last week, the committee subpoenaed the heads of Google, Facebook (NasdaqGS: FB – News) and Twitter (Frankfurt: A1W6XZ – News) to question them about the measures the internet giants are taking to remove hate speech from their platforms.