Google issues statement on YouTube porn ad problem, attributes it to ‘bad actors’

YouTube on smartphone stock photo 1

Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
  • There have now been two significant instances of a YouTube porn ad appearing in users’ mobile feeds.
  • We asked Google what it was doing to prevent this from happening.
  • The company has issued a statement that answers only some of our questions.

At the beginning of this month, we caught word of a pornographic advertisement making the rounds on YouTube. Somehow, this ad — which included pornographic video and sound — made it through YouTube’s moderation system and became a live, viewable ad. Google removed it and issued us a statement on the matter.

Yesterday, the same thing happened again. A YouTube porn ad — once again featuring both video and sound — started appearing in people’s feeds. Given the striking similarities in the format of the ads, the pornographic “genre” used, and the sham iOS apps used as fodder for them, we can only conclude that these ads are a concentrated effort by a person (or persons) intent on trolling YouTube.

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