YouTube was caught in an awkward spot Thursday when a CNN report revealed that it had run ads for Jewish groups on a Nazi’s channel.
According to the report, ads for the Friends of Zion Museum and the Jewish National Fund ran on self-proclaimed Nazi Brian Ruhe’s YouTube channel, which was monetized before it was taken down last month.
The Friends of Zion Museum pulled its ads from YouTube after they ads appeared on a Ruhe video called “David Duke on Harvey Weinstein exposing Jewish domination. Black/White genetic differences.”
The group now says it will not advertise on the platform “until we can be certain that incidents such as these will not repeat, and until we will be guaranteed that earnings from our campaign will not be forwarded to any channel glorifying Nazism or the Nazi crimes.”
Hundreds of top companies, including Amazon, Nordstrom, Hershey, Hilton, and Netflix also found their ads on extremist channels, according to CNN.
YouTube has promised to rectify the mistakes, but did not explain how they happened or why some of the extremist channels are left up on the platform.
“We have partnered with our advertisers to make significant changes to how we approach monetization on YouTube with stricter policies, better controls and greater transparency,” YouTube said. “We know that even when videos meet our advertiser friendly guidelines, not all videos will be appropriate for all brands.”
It is not the first time YouTube has been embarrassed by such revelations. The child-development campaign The Genius of Play previously froze its ads on YouTube when it discovered that the platform ran them on a now-demonetized channel with videos that had titles like, “Why Pedophilia is Alright.” Government agencies are also currently investigating how their promotional videos ended up on North Korean propaganda channels such as Red Star TV, which is officially recognized by the North Korean government. The Department of Transportation, Veterans Affairs, Centers for Disease Control, US Coast Guard Academy, and Customs and Border Protection all discovered their ads on the North Korean channels.