Press Release

ADL Statement on Brands' Ads on YouTube's Extremist Channels

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New York, NY, April 20, 2018 ... The following is a statement from Brittan Heller, director of ADL’s Center for Technology and Society, in response to a CNN report that found retail brands’ advertising running on YouTube channels promoting white nationalists, Nazis, pedophiles and other extremist views.

It's unfortunate but not surprising to see this type of hateful content appear in this way on YouTube. This is an ongoing problem with the lack of understanding in terms of how YouTube functions as a platform, and the ways in which advertising on it works. Organizations should not find themselves unknowingly financing white nationalists, Nazis, and conspiracy-based propagandists.

We call on YouTube and other platforms to better explain to the public why this is a recurring issue and how their technology developed to the point where a shoe ad appearing on a Nazi video is a regular occurrence.