Google announces new ad policies after boycotts

Google announced on Monday that it would be introducing new updates and policies for its advertising platform in the wake of a controversy spurred by ads appearing next to extremist content on YouTube.

“We believe the combination of these new policies and controls will significantly strengthen our ability to help advertisers reach audiences at scale, while respecting their values,” Google chief business officer Philipp Schindler wrote in a blog post.

Earlier in the week, high-profile brands including McDonald’s, The Guardian and HSBC pulled advertisements from YouTube after a Financial Times report revealed that their ads may have gone toward controversial and extremist groups.

{mosads}Schindler said that the company would raise its ad policies standards, its enforcement of these policies and new controls for advertisers on the platform.

The new policy changes include, “removing ads more effectively from content that is attacking or harassing people based on their race, religion, gender or similar categories.”

Google said that it will additionally take steps to make sure that ads only show up on the videos of its verified “partner” content creators.

The company also noted that it would make a hiring push and try to advance its technology to keep the issue at bay.

“We’ll be hiring significant numbers of people and developing new tools powered by our latest advancements in AI and machine learning to increase our capacity to review questionable content for advertising,” Schindler’s post read.