AT&T has recently pulled its advertising from YouTube in awake of predatory comments on the videos of children, according to CNBC. AT&T had reportedly only just started running ads on YouTube again after pulling them during a controversy in 2017.
Disney, Nestlé, and Fortnite maker Epic Games have also pulled ads from YouTube this week. The trend suggests that YouTube could be facing another adpocalypse, where inappropriate behavior by some users on the site leads to major advertisers backing out, sometimes for extended periods of time.
An AT&T spokesperson told CNBC: “Until Google can protect our brand from offensive content of any kind, we are removing all advertising from YouTube.”
The news about predatory comments started circulating earlier this week after a video highlighted how some videos featured time-stamped comments that sexualize children. The video pointed out that ads ran on many of these videos as well, and it called on advertisers to push back on YouTube.
YouTube recently said that it’s restricted advertising and commenting on millions of videos, banned hundreds of channels, and adjusted its recommendation algorithm to limit the reach of videos that had predatory comments.
