M&S suspends Google ads amid pressure over hate videos

The European boss of Google has apologised over online adverts appearing next to extremist material after M&S became the latest big company to pull ads from the internet giant.

Matt Brittin, head of the company for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said: "We are sorry to anybody that's been affected."

He made the comments at an industry conference after Marks & Spencer (Frankfurt: 534418 - news) joined the list of well-known UK brands to suspend advertising over concerns centred on content appearing on its YouTube platform.

M&S said: "In order to ensure brand safety, we are pausing activity across Google platforms whilst the matter is worked through."

The Government has already pulled ads and global advertising giant Havas (LSE: 0MGT.L - news) , which buys ad space for a number of big companies, suspended advertising last week.

Other big names to take similar action include McDonald's UK, Tesco (Frankfurt: 852647 - news) and Sainsbury (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS - news) 's, and Audi UK, plus high street banks Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) , HSBC and Lloyds.

:: What the firms are saying

Other businesses including Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) are considering what to do - though Barclays does not currently have any advertising on YouTube or Google.

Sky (Frankfurt: 893517 - news) , the owner of Sky News, said: "It is clearly unacceptable for ads to be appearing alongside inappropriate content and we are talking with Google to understand what they are doing to stop this."

Last week, media-buying agency GroupM, part of the world's largest ad agency WPP (Frankfurt: A1J2BZ - news) , told Google to apologise to customers and advertisers who saw inappropriate content on YouTube.

It has also written to clients explaining the potential risks to their brands and asking them how they want to respond.

MPs (BSE: MPSLTD.BO - news) recently said Google was "still profiting from hatred" after it failed to remove videos from groups allegedly linked to terrorism.

Google was summoned to appear in front of Cabinet Office ministers on Friday.

Sky News understands that the company apologised to senior civil servants representing the Government and pledged a review of their advertising systems.

Google was asked to return for another meeting this week to set out the action they plan to take.

Yvette Cooper MP, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, has said that Google's failure to remove the hate videos by was "frankly astonishing"

Last week the committee summoned bosses from Google, Facebook (NasdaqGS: FB - news) and Twitter (Frankfurt: A1W6XZ - news) , to question them about the action the web giants were taking to remove hate speech from their platforms.

It also raised the issue of adverts automatically being put next to hate videos.

A Google spokesman said last week: "We have strict guidelines that define where Google ads should appear, and in the vast majority of cases, our policies work as intended, protecting users and advertisers from harmful or inappropriate content.

"We accept that we don't always get it right, and that sometimes, ads appear where they should not.

"We're committed to doing better, and will make changes to our policies and brand controls for advertisers."