Mar 17, 2017
YouTube: UK government suspends ads amid extremism concerns
Ministers have summoned Google for talks at the Cabinet Office after imposing a temporary restriction on its own ads - including for military recruitment and blood donation campaigns - appearing on YouTube. The government is reported to spend about £2m a year on army recruitment advertising and recently moved away from TV advertising to focus more on digital platforms like YouTube. "Google is responsible for ensuring the high standards applied to government advertising are adhered to and that adverts do not appear alongside inappropriate content," a spokesman said. "We have placed a temporary restriction on our YouTube advertising pending reassurances from Google that government messages can be delivered in a safe and appropriate way." The Guardian has withdrawn all its advertising from both Google and YouTube after it said a promotion for a membership scheme had been inadvertently placed next to extremist material, including videos of American white nationalists, a hate preacher banned in the UK and a controversial Islamist preacher.
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