Brand Safety controversies have made YouTube come up with clarification and address the latest concerns.
YouTube held conference calls with all the prominent companies that have ad agencies along with many advertisers. It was to address the issue that raised after some of the news agencies reported that companies like Disney, Nestle, Epic games, and others have shown concerns over child safety issues and delayed their ad buys.
Matt Watson, one of the YouTubers in his video claimed that YouTube is facilitating the pedophiles by letting them connect through links shared on videos related to children gymnastics and others.
After issue garnered much attention, YouTube representatives released a memo, describing the efforts taken by the company.
The spokesperson of YouTube said that any content is it in videos or comment section, that targets children sexually is condemned and prohibited. The company is taking special measure by deleting accounts and channels that are involved in illegal activities and also have disabled comments of millions of videos of minors. They are planning to improve their efforts and react efficiently to such issue.
YouTube's representatives said that within 48 hours company deleted 400 channels which had comment history contradicting the policies of the platform. They have also joined hands with National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, to help in identifying the illegal activities on the videos of children and disabling comments on tens of millions of videos. A few have been disabled that have not yet done anything illegal but are suspicious.
Related: 20+ Most Important YouTube Stats For Digital Marketers and CreatorsThis is not the first time that YouTube is under fire. In 2017, many of the giant advertisers stopped investing in the platform because of offensive content, such as placing ads on videos that supported ISIS. But one of those companies, AT&T recently returned to platform saying that it has improved artificial intelligence, machine learning and better review of videos by humans.
According to the recent stats, YouTube is producing 300+ hours’ long videos in one minute. A huge amount of content on the site is very difficult to be checked and verified. It also said that if YouTube put restrictions, there will soon be voices asking for freedom of speech. It is almost impossible for YouTube to tackle the issue either through human force or machine learning.
Such issues that rise on monthly basis, affect both the product and consumers, content producers and people who earn and bread butter from the platform.
