Neo-Nazis scoop YouTube ad revenue from UK telcos
Neo-Nazis operating in the UK have reportedly used YouTube's
advertising revenue-sharing system to gobble up payments from companies
that include BT, O2 and Virgin Media.
None of the telcos were aware that the right-wing extremists who had
posted the videos on Google's website were exploiting the search giant's
Adsense network, which allows YouTube members who upload
non-copyrighted vids onto the service to slurp up a portion of the
advertising bucks.
The payments have apparently helped neo-Nazi groups to generate
funding after they posted videos on the site that are often marked by
YouTube as "potentially offensive or inappropriate" material.
The Sydney Morning Herald
reported that Google had since taken down the videos after been alerted
to the fact that the extremists were benefiting from the ads displayed
on the content.
WARNING: This video is full of crap
It's unlikely, however, that Google will be able to effectively
police such videos, and anyway, the extremists aren't breaking any of
the company's Ts&Cs; the company allows any YouTube member to
benefit from its revenue-sharing service as long as the material is
original and not violating someone else's copyright.
Google does state on its community guidelines:
We encourage free speech and defend everyone's right to express unpopular points of view. But we don't permit hate speech (speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity).
But such "offensive" material can only be removed on a case-by-case
basis if complaints are sent to Mountain View. In the meantime, the
YouTube members who wise up to joining AdSense can benefit, temporarily
at least, from ads running on their videos, no matter how nasty the vids
themselves might be.
A YouTube exec once told your correspondent that members of the
YouTube community needed to act a bit like online curtain-twitchers to
report such vulgar videos to Google.
Virgin Media, as one of the companies whose adverts were displayed on the neo-Nazi vids on YouTube, told the Herald:
"Virgin Media has a strict policy on its ad placement, so we are
concerned about ads appearing against unrelated and unsuitable content
on YouTube. We are currently engaged with our advertising partners and
Google to understand what measures can be put into place to prevent
these occurrences going forward." ®
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