Fox News reported Thursday that some of the commercials that companies paid millions to premiere during Sunday’s Super Bowl game have been showing up as the opening ad on ISIS recruiting videos on YouTube. Along with the pricey ads from companies like Snickers and Budweiser, one of the most notably unfortunate that has been shown before the terror group’s video was Hyundai’s unprecedented commercial that featured U.S. troops stationed in Poland being virtually transported into the stadium beside their families watching the game.
“We find it highly unfortunate that someone would try to capitalize on such a terrific salute to our soldiers,” Hyundai spokesman Jim Trainor told Fox News. “We’re going to talk to YouTube to see what we can do to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future.”
YouTube told Fox News in an email that they “have clear policies prohibiting terrorist recruitment and content intending to incite violence, and quickly remove videos violating these policies when flagged by our users.”
YouTube stated that they “also terminate accounts run by terrorist organizations or those that repeatedly violate our policies.”
Some of the advertisers paid $5 million per 30 seconds of air time to have their commercials shown during the biggest sporting event of the year. Now, they are indirectly funding the Islamic State.
Eric Feinberg, the CEO of a company that monitors online content called “GIPEC,” told Fox that with the way YouTube’s ad-revenue program works, the automatically placed ads generate revenue that is then partially sent to the entity that created and/or uploaded the video. With the way YouTube’s advertising works, these companies are in a way sending money to the Islamic State.
“Indirectly, Super Bowl advertisers and companies are funding or providing material support to terrorism and terrorist sympathizers due to YouTube’s shared ad-revenue program,” he said.
Feinberg also added that this sort of mishap “shows YouTube’s arrogance and carelessness.”
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