YouTube is being pressured to remove ads from China Central Television, a state media channel that’s allegedly spreading misinformation about protesters in Hong Kong. The Verge reports: Users on Twitter and Reddit have posted a number of screenshots of the ads, many of which paint the Hong Kong protests as an illegitimate product of foreign influence. The users accuse YouTube and parent company Google of enabling an “infestation of ads” that “tries to sow political discord.” As a result, many supporters of the protests are demanding that Google stop CCTV from running ads on YouTube. “Google, why are you helping China [government] to undermine freedom of [Hong Kong citizens] with your platform,” Chu Ka-cheong, an engineer based in Hong Kong, tweeted.

YouTube hasn’t addressed the advertisements on its own platform yet. Google’s ad policies don’t directly address state media branches like CCTV, although Google has rules for political advertisements and prohibits content that misrepresents the product or organization an advertisement is talking about. Still, it’s unclear whether CCTV’s ads violate Google’s policies. A representative for YouTube did not respond to The Verge’s request for comment by the time of publish. CCTV’s main YouTube channel has just over 560,000 subscribers. After being criticized for running promoted tweets by China’s largest state agency, Twitter announced it will no longer accept advertising from state media operations, like China Central Television.

Although Facebook did not announce any policy changes following the discovery of several accounts and pages spreading misinformation about the protesters, the company is “committed to continually improving to stay ahead,” according to Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – YouTube Pressured To Ban Chinese State Media Ads That Spread Misinformation About Protesters