Fortnite developer, Disney and more companies pull YouTube ads amid horror over child videos
Video sharing site accidentally helped people find suggestive footage
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The developer of Fortnite, Disney and other major companies have pulled their advertising from YouTube amid horror over the way videos of children were being used.
The development comes after it emerged that videos on the site appeared to be getting watched as part of a phenomenon that saw users share suggestive posts of children and then pass them around.
As part of what appears to be a network used by those interested in watching such suggestive videos of children, apparently innocent videos – of very young people dancing or taking part in gymnastics, for instance – would be hit by comments from users linking the posts together. That would then encourage the site's algorithms to suggest more videos, allowing people to pass them around without having explicitly done so.
The blogger who discovered the phenomenon described it as a "soft-core pedophilia ring" that appeared to be operating relatively openly, though using hidden methods. That video, created, by Matt Watson, has now been viewed nearly two million times.
It described in detail how YouTube's comment section and recommended videos allowed people to find entirely innocently made videos and pass them around. Some of those videos have gone on to receive vast number of views, potentially endangering the children in them.
In the wake of that discovery, a host of many of the biggest companies in the world have paused advertising on YouTube, reported Bloomberg.
YouTube has called the content "abhorrent" and said that it has policies to stop such abuse of its platform. The company has been deleting the problem comments and any channels associated with them, it said.
In 2017, a host of companies pulled out of advertising on the site because their videos were being shown alongside extremist and violent content. Many of those companies have since returned to showing ads, and Google has committed to cracking down on such problematic videos.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments