Elon Musk criticises YouTube for “nonstop scam ads”

Musk calls on YouTube for scams and not combatting misinformation on the platform

Tesla CEO posted a series of tweets about YouTube which included a meme that threw shade at the company’s hypocrisy at fighting scam ads after it claimed to censor things like swearing.

YouTube’s Guidelines tells users to avoid swearing on the site for advertising purposes but doesn’t censor it. According to their policy, the site cuts down on allowing creators to monetise their videos frequent profanity and vulgarity. The policy, however, doesn’t apply to music videos on the platform.

Spokesperson for Google, parent company of YouTube, told Insider that the company’s policy prohibits ads that are designed to deceive or mislead users.

Elaborating on the policy, the spokesperson said, “We have a range of ads policies that are designed to combat scams and other deceptive practices by bad actors, including policies that prohibit ads impersonating other brands and trademark abuse. These policies apply to all Google Ads, including those on YouTube, and we enforce them vigorously – in 2021 alone we blocked or removed 175 million ads across our platform for violating our misrepresentation and trademark policies."

YouTube has already been hit with a series of cryptocurrency scams with at least 18 lawsuits. Scammers have already targeted Musk fans by falsely claiming a fake SpaceX digital coin, generating $9 million with ads through that video.

While YouTube has taken a firm stance against policing misinformation in the past, especially after it banned Donald Trump from the platform, 80 fact-checking groups still called on the company to combat disinformation.