San Francisco (AFP)

YouTube has everything to attract advertisers: 2 billion monthly active users and sophisticated advertising tools to target them.

But the video platform of Google is regularly questioned in scandals related to the "brand safety", that is to say the environment in which the advertisements are diffused. Clearly, brands do not want to appear next to a video that promotes terrorism, for example.

Back on the main slippages.

- 2016: anger of youtubers -

"I think I can not call you + my beloved bastards anymore," complains political commentator Philip DeFranco to his 4.5 million subscribers in August 2016.

The famous "youtubeur" has just received a message from the platform meaning that one of his videos had been demonetized because he used insulting terms. Other writers in similar situations are protesting against this "censorship".

The most popular youtubers, who have made their videos their business, live primarily advertising revenues. They find that algorithms and rule changes are increasingly complicating their quest for performance.

Some well-known authors such as Sweden's Felix Kjellberg, aka PewDiePie, are threatening to leave the platform.

- 2017: loss of confidence -

In March, the British daily The Times plunges Google into embarrassment by revealing that advertisements of large groups have been backed by antisemitic content, including a controversial video of PewDiePie, inciting hatred or apologizing for terrorism.

This time it's the advertisers who are threatening to leave. Major brands like Procter & Gamble or AT & T are doing it.

The scandal reveals the weaknesses of an automated advertising space selling system, based on algorithms that indirectly encourage incendiary content.

The confidence of advertisers is shaken. Google takes a series of steps to help them more accurately determine the type of content they want their ads to appear on.

- 2017: comments moved -

In November, YouTube erases tens of thousands of children's videos with pedophile comments in an attempt to reassure concerned advertisers, some of whom have decided to remove their ads from the platform, such as the US computer group HP .

"We have clear policies against videos and comments on YouTube that sexualize or exploit children and we apply them drastically when we are alerted," says a YouTube spokesperson.

Google says it has invested to better detect questionable content with tools of artificial intelligence and more human resources.

- 2018: video-suicide -

But in January 2018, new scandal: an American actor, star of the platform, triggers the ire of the Net surfers by posting a video showing a man who had committed suicide by hanging, in Japan. The images filmed by Logan Paul are viewed 6 million times before being removed.

YouTube reinforces the access rules and controls of its channels.

Paul Muret, then vice president of Youtube, admits that 2017 was "a difficult year with many problems that affected our community and our advertising partners".

- 2019: a "network of pedophiles" -

In February 2019, a blogger recounts how YouTube users are using comments as children's videos, such as little girls doing gym work, to identify and share certain content. They are able to get around YouTube's prohibitions on child pornography and create a sort of "network" of pedophiles.

For the blogger, the algorithm of the platform facilitates these actions, recommending similar videos, and is indignant that these videos bring money through advertising backed up.

Brands are again boycotting YouTube, such as Epic Games (behind the hit game Fortnite), Nestle, Disney or AT & T.

YouTube says it has "immediately removed channels and accounts, reported illegal activity to the authorities, and disabled comments on tens of millions of videos including minors."

- 2019: targeted harassment -

After initially refusing to remove videos from extreme right-wing commentator Steven Crowder, who regularly mocked the sexual orientation of Carlos Maza, a gay journalist, YouTube ended up denying him access to ad revenue. A totally ineffective measure, according to Carlos Maza.

Six months later, in December, the platform toughens its rules against harassment, from personal insults to implied threats.

Successive slippage, however, does not appear to have affected Google's revenues, which come mainly from large-scale personalized advertising thanks to the countless data collected automatically on the users of its platforms.

According to eMarketer, the internet giant is expected to capture 37.2% of the US advertising market in 2019, a harvest of more than $ 48 billion.

© 2019 AFP