Hey, America’s Advertisers: You got some good news last week, didn’t you?, asks the New York Times, which continued:
“Facebook, where you are increasingly placing your advertising, says it will do more to keep live killings, streaming suicides and terrorist videos off its site.
“With any luck the 3,000 new content monitors Facebook says it is hiring will be able to remove those sorts of hand grenades from its news feed before any can roll up next to your ads and blow your public images to kingdom come.
“That followed similar news from YouTube, owned by Google, where you are spending even more of your advertising money. It announced it was looking for ways to give advertisers more say over where their ads go, after The Times of London recently discovered an automated system had inadvertently put ads from L’Oréal, Nissan and others into videos featuring the anti-Semitic stylings of a hatemonger whose name I will not publicize here.
“The question now is whether all of this will give advertisers the assurance they need to keep sending the overwhelming majority of their new online ad dollars to Google and Facebook.There is more at stake in the answer than the fortunes of our two online overlords. It will also help determine the fate of the rest of the digital media. And that, in turn, will affect whether cities like (Philadelphia) will be able to maintain a vibrant free press that keeps government honest and voters informed.”
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