Pedophile row hits YouTube advertising as major brands pull out

After reports emerged about YouTube overlooking the loopholes that allow paedophiles to abuse the platform to the network through comments on innocuous videos, some of the top brands are reportedly backtracking from advertising on the Google-owned platform.

Major companies, including Nestle, Epic, Disney and McDonald's announced that they have put on hold their advertising on YouTube. The companies have called on the company to resolve the issue, TechCrunch reported.

Late last week, Redditor Matt Watson highlighted how YouTube's recommendation algorithm redirected to inappropriate videos, featuring women and in some instances, exploitative clips of children. Some videos also feature inappropriate comments by paedophiles with timestamps that indicated children in compromising positions in videos.

YouTube has stressed that it has reported the abusive comments to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The company is taking further steps against child exploitation, including more experts to sift out inappropriate content.