Nestle pulls ads from YouTube over videos of minors
Food giant Nestle is among the companies yanking ads from YouTube after a blogger detailed what he called "a wormhole into a soft-core pedophilia ring" on Google's video site.
"All Nestle companies in the U.S. have paused advertising on YouTube," a spokesperson for the food company told CBS MoneyWatch.
YouTube users who clicked on videos of young girls engaged in what could be viewed as a sexually suggestive activity like gymnastics were then given recommendations by YouTube's algorithms to similar video clips, blogger Matt Watson said in a 20-minute video posted Sunday that has been viewed nearly 1.8 million times.
The blogger's clip comes two years after several large brands boycotted YouTube after ads cropped up alongside extremist content.
On Tuesday, YouTube updated its policy on how it would deal with inappropriate content.
Video game maker Epic Games and packaged food giant Dr. August Oetker also halted ad spending at YouTube.
"We have paused all pre-roll advertising. Through our advertising agency, we have reached out to Google/YouTube to determine actions they'll take to eliminate this type of content from their service," spokesperson emailed.
"We immediately stopped all advertising on Youtube and asked the company to explain how it could happen that advertising of our company was placed in an environment that we strictly reject and consider highly reprehensible ethically. Dr. August Oetker emailed. "Moreover do we expect Youtube to immediately remove from its site any contributions that threaten the integrity and protection of minors."
Disney also withdrew ad spending on YouTube after its ads were shown ahead of the videos, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.
Disney and YouTube did not immediately return requests for comment.
However, YouTube told Bloomberg it had deleted accounts and disabled some comments to curb the activity.