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YouTube is facing another controversy after several prestigious companies such as Disney, Nestle and Fortnite the publisher Epic Games has pulled its publicity from the video platform. Everything comes from a recent discovery by Matt Watson, in which users were using the harmless video comments section to participate in the exploitation of children and the sharing of minor pornography.
Earlier this week, Watson shared a video in which he presented evidence showing that YouTube's algorithm recommended videos involving minors, monetizing them and allowing users to provide links to child pornography in his comments. Watson says it only takes about 5 clicks to get caught in this "wormhole" and that YouTube is taking advantage of the kids' exploitation.
In appearance, all this may seem innocent, but the analysis of these comments reveals a disturbing pattern that begins with the sharing of inappropriate timestamps and extends to unregistered child pornography. And, according to Watson, many of these videos support monetization, which means that the pre-roll of an advertiser can be played on the video.
Since Watson released the video, YouTube has removed more than 400 channels and removed millions of videos, but the damage is apparently caused. Shortly after Watson's findings became viral, big companies like Disney and Epic Games started to take their ad.
YouTube content creators are concerned that it's there another "adpocalypse" for the platform, named after an instance in which advertisers are supporting on individual channels or on YouTube as a whole. Many saw the same thing when Pewdiepie was criticized for his antisemitic content in his videos.
In the end, things have returned to normal after this adpocalypse and it is likely that it will be the case thereafter. YouTube is still the biggest video platform on the planet and advertisers are not going to abandon it completely. But we hope at least it will show YouTube fundamental problems with its algorithms and moderation processes.
Source: Matt Watson, Washington Post
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