Back in 2014, I got a call from someone I’d never met before. His name was Eric Feinberg and he was developing software that tracked ad supported terrorist videos on Youtube. He initiated the call because he had read an article I had written back in 2013 about pirate websites making money from advertising. He thought we should talk.
For the past three years Eric and I have spoken on the phone at least once a week, trying to figure out how to bring attention to what we and others saw as widespread, unchecked criminal activity on the internet.
Then last fall public awareness exploded during the presidential election. The curtain was pulled back and internet users started to realize just how dangerous and lawless the internet was. Everyone was being exposed to an angry free for all fraught with Fake News, Russian Hacking, blatant falsehoods and extreme bullying. Peoples confidence in the reliability of what they read on the internet was seriously tested.
Things got so bad during the election that the Associated Press was replaced byWikiLeaks for news reporting.
While all this was going on Feinberg continued sending his screen shots to news outlets. He even sent the Trump organization an ad featuring a photo of the candidate with the tag line “Aspire to Greatness” running next to a Youtube video featuring a terrorist holding a sniper rifle.
A few news outlets ran stories, but it wasn’t until last month when the British Government decided to address the scandal that the story finally broke. Ministers from the Cabinet Office called on Google to explain their policy for protecting advertisers, like those placed by the British Government, from having their advertising associated with videos from hate groups and terrorist organizations.
“It is wrong that these social media companies should make billions of dollars out of running their platforms but don’t make the necessary investments to properly police them.” Labour MP Chuka Umunna
Googles familiar response of “we’ll do better” failed to address their concerns. The British Government decided to cancel all their Youtube advertising.
On hearing this news, the response from the advertising community was swift:
“Google, Facebook and others are media companies and have the same responsibilities as any other media company,” said Sorrell. “They cannot masquerade as technology companies, particularly when they place advertisements.” Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of the world’s largest marketing services group WPP.
Soon major American advertisers were pulling ads from Google as well.
An AT&T Spokesperson said that it was halting all ad spending on Google except for search ads, meaning AT&T ads will not run on YouTube or two million websites that take part in Google’s ad network. “We are deeply concerned that our ads may have appeared alongside YouTube content promoting terrorism and hate,” the company said in an emailed statement.
“Until Google can ensure this won’t happen again, we are removing our ads from Googles non-search platforms.” At last count, Google had forfeited a reported $750 million in lost ad revenue.
Then Advertising Age ran a story “Meet the Man Behind Youtube’s Sudden Ad Crises….” about Feinberg. Finally, Eric’s efforts over the past year were realized.
While the issue of ad supported terrorism is too controversial to ignore, the destruction of people’s careers caused by ad supported piracy is a serious problem as well. It’s estimated that over nearly twenty years we have lost hundreds of thousands of jobs to online piracy in this country. People who could once earn a living as writers, filmmakers, photographers, musicians, designers, etc. are no longer able to support themselves from the sale of their work. Once it is offered for free on infringing websites, copyright holders have found it increasingly difficult to get people to pay for their work.
It has been allowed to go on for so long, so openly, that many internet users believe they are entitled to stream and downloading creative works without paying for them. That’s just the way its’ done.
Internet Service Providers (like Comcast) and search engines (like Google) have contributed to that attitude by failing to be proactive in fighting piracy. They claim they are the information highway and have no responsibility for what others post.
An entire generation, many of whom now work in technology, grew up celebrating the possibilities of the internet and staunchly oppose any outside oversight.
And in a world with only good intentions and people treating one another with respect it might work. Sadly, that isn’t the world we live in, far from it. The reality is the internet can be a very dangerous place.
It’s now up to our legislators to define the difference between free speech and hate speech and level the playing field for non-internet businesses before our towns and local jobs completely disappear.
We need laws that protect copyright holders from those who use and profit from their work without permission. We need laws protecting those who sell their work on the internet from counterfeiters.
We need laws that make the internet safer and protect Americans and American Jobs.