Google has removed a number of ads from YouTube that “violate Islamic values”, at the request of the Saudi authorities.
According to the Saudi newspaper, “Okaz”, the YouTube administration issued a statement confirming its response to the request of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to stop advertisements that contradict Islamic Sharia and social values in the Kingdom.
According to the statement, the YouTube administration stressed that protecting the community is a top priority for its work, revealing what it described as “abusive parties” and who said that they “always try to find loopholes in our systems.”
And she pointed out that, “Over the past year, Google has globally banned more than 286 million ads across its platforms, due to its promotion of content that violates our advertising policies.”
And she said, “Finally, ads appeared on YouTube that violate the platform’s policies, and they are totally unacceptable, so we took a number of immediate measures to stop the abusers who violate our policies.”
“These ads have been removed, the accounts of the responsible advertisers have been closed, and while we work on other solutions, there will be temporary restrictions placed on certain forms of ads on YouTube that have been targeted for abuse.”
It is noteworthy that the General Authority for Audiovisual Media and the Communications and Information Technology General Authority in Saudi Arabia had sent a joint statement to YouTube, requesting the site to delete content that violates Islamic and societal values and principles, which is in violation of the regulations related to media content in the Kingdom.