Is YouTube billing - and not refunding - advertisers for ads served on non-conforming or potentially copyright infringing content? Are its algorithms actively promoting this content to consumers, and deleting details about this content from advertisers’ placement reports?
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Ads observed on YouTube videos which were later deleted from the platform and redacted in ad delivery placement reports

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Note: to get straight to the interesting part, read from the the bullet point number 10 in the summary in the comments.

  • Pro@programming.devOPEnglish
    3·
    11 hours ago
    Summary Part 3
    1. In some cases, third-party YouTube creators upload “re-distributed” content, such as ESPN, CBS Sports, or Fox Sports college football game live streams or episodes of TV shows such as Family Guy. After ~12 hours, the creators edit the videos to cut out the “re-distributed” content and they edit the title, description, and meta-data of the videos to something unrelated. This appears to prevent brand advertisers from knowing against what sorts of content their ads were served on in their original form, and suggests that YouTube ad delivery placement reports may not accurately convey what sorts of content the ads were served against before the videos were retro-actively edited and re-named.
    2. Disney, Lionsgate, Paramount, Universal/Focus Features, Bleecker Street, and streaming services like Disney+, Peacock, Sling TV, YouTube TV, and Hulu/FX, in their capacity as advertisers, have run ads against uploaded copies of their own intellectual property on third-party channels, thus potentially funding it.
    3. The presidential election campaigns of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, as well as major brands such Procter & Gamble, had ads served on videos that appear to belong to various professional film studios, such as “Deadpool & Wolverine”, whilst the film was being shown in movie cinemas in the summer of 2024.
    4. The list of brands whose ads were served on third-party, “re-distributed” content YouTube channels which were later deleted by YouTube (and thus, likely retroactively redacted from their ad delivery placement reports), includes: a. the New York Times, the presidential election campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, the House Majority PAC (a Democrat Super PAC), Procter & Gamble (P&G),Unilever, BMO Bank, Ben & Jerry’s, McDonald’s, US Bank, Crossmedia, Samsung, Disney+, FX networks, WarnerMedia (HBO Max), Mint Mobile, Focus Features (owned by NBCUniversal), Kellanova (Special K, Frosted Flakes), State Farm, Verizon, Visible (by Verizon), T-Mobile, Disney, Hulu, Mazda, the Wall Street Journal, Nissan, North Face, Paramount+, Health for California Insurance Center, A&E Television Networks (Lifetime), NBCUniversal Media (Peacock), Volvo cars, Lionsgate, Macy’s, Adobe, SlingTV, Hyundai, Genesis, AAA (American Automobile Association), Amazon, AMC Plus, Mindshare USA (part of GroupM/WPP), Peloton, Linkedin, TD Bank, Grammarly, General Mills, Ubisoft, Zaxby’s, Dentsu X, Dentsu Carat, OMD (part of Omnicom), Publicis Media, Alfa Romeo (part of Stellantis), Starcom Worldwide, Horizon Media, Canvas Worldwide, Safelite, Ricolino (owned by Mondelez), Save The Children, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Hasbro, Kinder (Ferrero), TruGreen, California Teachers Association, Frontier Internet, Ticketmaster, Meta (Facebook), Ray Ban, JetBlue, Quest Nutrition, Shopify, General Motors, Ruiz Foods, JPMorgan Chase, Currax Pharmaceuticals, TikTok, B&H PHoto & Video, Invesco, VaynerMedia, Kingsford, St. George’s University, Empower insurance, Ezcater, Philo, GolfNow, World Vision Fund, Discover Puerto Rico, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Jimmy Fund), Novo Nordisk, Ooni, Aquasana, Panasonic, Atlassian, Caterpillar, Fandango, Harbor Freight Tools, Castlery Furniture, Blue Diamond Hotels, and others. b. Zefr, which is a Partner of the YouTube Measurement Program, appears to have been observed transacting ads for Dexcom on a “re-distributed” video of Netflix’s “Squid Game 3” which was later removed. Channel Factory, which declares itself to be a Google Premier Partner, part of the YouTube Measurement Program, and is TAG “Certified for Brand Safety”, was observed transacting ads on behalf of brands such as:
    • General Mills on “re-distributed” YouTube videos of the movie “John Wick: Chapter 4” on a channel which was removed from YouTube,
    • Sephora and Quest Nutrition on “re-distributed” YouTube videos of the movie “Spider Man: Homecoming” on a channel which was removed from YouTube,
    • Tena (part of Essity) on “re-distributed” YouTube videos of the movie: “Deadpool & Wolverine” on a channel which was removed from YouTube “because it violated [YouTube’s] Community Guidelines” (archived here: https://www.loom.com/share/9fff55d650eb4fd68ae938fc19aa0299)