Anti-Vax Channels on YouTube Demonetized Following Advertiser Complaints

• A number of advertisers have pulled advertising partnerships with YouTube after they found their brands being represented on anti-vax channels.
• YouTube has stopped monetizing anti-vaccination content following complaints from advertisers.
• The video sharing platform will be working towards improving its algorithms to ensure better ad accuracy.

YouTube revealed that it will prevent channels that contain anti-vax content from running advertisements and earn money on the platform. The video sharing platform considers anti-vax content to fall under the “dangerous and harmful” category of content.

YouTube has placed strict policies in place for monetization. Any videos that are found guilty of promoting anti-vaccination practices will be demonetized, and action will be taken against them. The platform is also implementing a new information panel pertaining to vaccines. Some advertisers that do not support anti-vaccination movements had their brands being represented via advertisements on anti-vax videos.

Source: buzzfeednews

Some advertisers pulled all advertising contracts with YouTube until the issue is resolved. Multiple advertisers were contacted by Buzzfeed news, and many of them were unaware of such programmatic ads. While YouTube’s algorithms are in place to ensure ads running on the platform are visible only on relevant videos, there are many cases of the system not working properly.

Vitacost, a discount vitamin company had its ads running on several anti-vax videos. A representative of the company stated “We pulled all YouTube advertising on Tuesday morning when we noticed content issues. We had strict rules to prevent our ads from serving on sensitive content, and they were not as effective as promised.”

YouTube faced criticism over inappropriate videos featuring children recently with a network of pedophiles actively viewing the videos and commenting on them. The platform took immediate action against the content creators with over 400 channels being removed. Tens of millions of comments have also been removed that were deemed inappropriate by the platform.

YouTube is also working towards improving its algorithm to ensure the appearance of conspiracy theories do not feature on its “Recommended” and “Up Next” categories. The platform has promised that its algorithms are being worked on and it will get more accurate over time.

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