AT&T pulls non-search Google ads as concerns about hate speech

SAN FRANCISCO — AT&T says it's pulling its business from Google and YouTube despite the Internet giant's pledge this week to keep offensive and extremist content away from ads.

AT&T said that it is halting all of its ad spending on Google except for search ads. That means AT&T ads will not run on Google's video service YouTube and on a couple million websites that take part in Google's ad network.

"We are deeply concerned that our ads may have appeared alongside YouTube content promoting terrorism and hate," the company said in an emailed statement. "Until Google can ensure this won’t happen again, we are removing our ads from Google’s non-search platforms."

AT&T is also positioning itself as an advertising platform that competes with Google. But the decision by a major U.S. brand to yank its ads suggests that an advertiser boycott that began in the U.K. is now spreading. That, despite assurances this week from Google that it would pull online ads from controversial content, give brands more control over where their ads appear and would deploy more people to enforce its ad policies.

"We don't comment on individual customers but, as announced, we’ve begun an extensive review of our advertising policies and have made a public commitment to put in place changes that give brands more control over where their ads appear," Google said in a statement. "We're also raising the bar for our ads policies to further safeguard our advertisers’ brands."

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