EVERY DAY ACROSS the nation, people doing work for Google log in to their computers and start watching YouTube. They look for violence in videos. They seek out hateful language in video titles. They decide whether to classify clips as “offensive” or “sensitive.” They are Google’s so-called “ads quality raters,” temporary workers hired by outside agencies to render judgments machines still can’t make all on their own. And right now, Google appears to need these humans’ help—urgently.
YouTube, the Google-owned video giant, sells ads that accompany millions of the site’s videos each day. Automated systems determine where those ads appear, and advertisers often don’t know which specific videos their ads will show up next to. Recently, that uncertainty has turned into a big problem for Google. The company has come under scrutiny after multiple reports revealed that it had allowed ads to run against YouTube videos promoting hate and terrorism. Advertisers such as Walmart, PepsiCo, and Verizon, ditched the platform, and much of the wider Google ad network.Google has scrambled to control the narrative, saying the media has overstated the problem of ads showing up adjacent to offensive videos. Flagged videos received “less than 1/1000th of a percent of the advertisers’ total impressions,” the company says. Google’s chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, says the issue affected a “very very very small” number of videos. But ad raters say the company is marshalling them as a force to keep the problem from getting worse.
Sorgente: Meet YouTube’s Hidden Laborers Toiling to Keep Ads Off Hateful Videos | WIRED
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