More Than 300 Trump Campaign Ads Removed By Google, YouTube - Report
Tech giant is found to have archive of deleted Trump ads
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Hundreds of video advertisements for President Donald Trump have been taken down Google and YouTube, according to a report on CBS News’s "60 Minutes."
While reviewing the tech titans' advertising archives, the news magazine discovered over 300 video advertisements for Trump had been removed for 'violating policies.'
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki responded to the findings saying there were "ads of President Trump that were not approved to run on Google or YouTube."
She added that the ads are "available in our transparency report."
Wojcicki was also pressed about a Facebook ad run by Trump’s reelection campaign.
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The ad focused on former Vice President Joe Biden offering military aid to Ukraine in exchange for the firing of a prosecutor that was investigating a company tied to his son Hunter.
“Facebook is facing a lot of controversies because it refuses to take down a President Trump ad about Biden, which is not true. Would you run that ad?” correspondent Lesley Stahl asked Wojcicki.
“So that is an ad that right now would not be a violation of our policies,” Wojcicki responded.
“Is it on YouTube right now?” Stahl asked.
“It has been on YouTube,” the YouTube CEO replied.
“Can a politician lie on YouTube?” Stahl pressed.
“For every single video, I think it's really important to look at it,” Wojcicki returned.
“Politicians are always accusing their opponents of lying.
"That said, it's not OK to have technically manipulated content that would be misleading.”
“For example, there was a video uploaded of Nancy Pelosi,” she continued.
“It was slowed down just enough that it was unclear whether or not she was in her full capacity because she was speaking in a slower voice.”
“The title of the video actually said drunk, had that in the title. And we removed that video,” Wojcicki added.
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Stahl also pressed on conservative's accusations that social media platforms are biased.
“Well, first of all, there are lots of very successful conservative creators on YouTube,” Wojcicki responded.
“Our systems, our algorithms, they don't have any concept of understanding what's a Democrat, what's a Republican.
"They don't have any concept of political bias built into them in any way. And we do hear this criticism from all sides.”
“We also have people who come from more liberal backgrounds who complain about discrimination. And so I think that no matter who you are, we are trying to enforce our policies in a consistent way for everybody,” Wojcicki added.
