Google changes its ads policies after YouTube backlash

Google, the world's largest digital ad-seller, is introducing a new system that will let companies verify the ad quality standards on YouTube.

This comes after several marketers halted spending on YouTube and Google's digital ad network after their ads appeared next to extremist videos aimed at promoting hate, violence and terrorism.

Google's chief business officer Phillip Schindler told Bloomberg News that the company had improved its ability to flag offending videos and disable them. The internet search giant has also allocated more artificial intelligence tools to deciphering YouTube's video library.

"We switched to a completely new generation of our latest and greatest machine-learning models," Schindler said. "We had not deployed it to this problem, because it was a tiny, tiny problem. We have limited resources."

Schindler also added that Google discovered the YouTube videos flagged in recent media reports represented about one one-thousandth of a percent of total ads shown.

The company is creating a brand safety reporting channel that lets YouTube ads be monitored by external partners like comScore and Integral Ad Science, according to a company spokesperson.

Using the new machine-learning tools and a lot more people, the company on the last two weeks flagged five times as many videos as non safe or disabled from ads than before, the spokesperson added.

The technology giant is also expanding its definition of hate speech to include marginalised groups. It is reportedly adding a new filter to disable ads on "dangerous and derogatory content."

Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson, who was one of largest advertisers to halt spending on Google's platforms, is now reversing its position in most major markets.