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| Nestle and others major companies have suspended their YouTube ads over news of a pedophile network on the global video-sharing platform. gettyimagesbank |
By Jung Min-ho
Disney, Nestle, Epic Games and other major brands have pulled their ads from YouTube after reports of a pedophile network rampant in the comments of many videos.
The companies reportedly made the decision after YouTube creator Matt Watson posted a video on Feb. 17 to criticize YouTube, owned by Google, for ignoring pedophiles' exploitation of videos of young children, mostly girls, doing, for example, gymnastics or showing bare legs.
Such videos are often filled with all kinds of lewd remarks directed at the children.
A Nestle spokesperson confirmed that "all Nestle companies in the U.S. have paused advertising on YouTube."
A spokesperson from Epic said: "We have paused all pre-roll advertising … Through our advertising agency, we have reached out to Google/YouTube to determine actions they'll take to eliminate this type of content from their service."
Watson, also known as MattsWhatItIs, accuses YouTube of facilitating the sexual exploitation of children. He said its recommendation system also helps pedophiles find similar videos ― many of which carry ads for major brands.
"Any content ― including comments ― that endangers minors is abhorrent and we have clear policies prohibiting this on YouTube," a YouTube spokeswoman said.
"We took immediate action by deleting accounts and channels, reporting illegal activity to authorities and disabling violative comments."
The spokeswoman said the company disabled comments on tens of millions of videos featuring minors and removed thousands of inappropriate comments on videos with young people in them.
About two years ago, major advertisers pulled their ads on YouTube over concerns about them showing up next to extremist and violent content. But many eventually returned after they were reassured that YouTube had made much progress in dealing with the problem.
