Google removes ad terms targeting hate speech on YouTube

Google in a move has blocked several terms associated with hate speech are being used as ad keywords on YouTube videos.

In a report by TheMarkup, advertisers could search for terms like “white lives matter” and “white power” when deciding where to place ads on YouTube.

Simultaneously, Google has been blocking advertisers from using terms such as “Black Lives Matter” to find videos and channels to run ads against. The YouTube parent company said that it has blocked more racial and social justice terms such as “Black excellence” and “civil rights” and is taking the issue of hate speech and harassment very seriously.

“We take the issue of hate and harassment very seriously and condemn it in the strongest terms possible,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “Though no ads ever ran against this content on YouTube, because our multi-layered enforcement strategy worked during this investigation, we fully acknowledge that the terms identified are offensive and harmful and should not have been searchable. Our teams have addressed the issue and blocked terms that violate our enforcement policies. We will continue to be vigilant in this regard.”

YouTube has several layers of protection in place to prevent offensive or harmful ads from running on its platform that regularly removes videos containing hate speech. The company said that last year it had blocked or removed more than 867 million ads for trying to evade its detection systems and more than 3 billion bad ads in total.

Google does not publicly disclose how it develops its enforcement tools so that so-called bad actors can’t circumvent its rules.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki had said in a blog post that the company’s hate speech policy “specifically bans videos alleging that a group is superior based on qualities like race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion.”