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Alphabet's YouTube to Toughen Stance on Disturbing Content
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Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOGL - Free Report) YouTube announced on Monday that it is planning tougher initiatives to free its platform from harsh, violent and disturbing videos and comments.
Google has been revamping its policies since the YouTube ad controversy surfaced in March. The issue that primarily centered on the U.K., went global in no time, with over 250 brands suspending their advertising on YouTube. The list included big names from private as well as public sectors including Transport for London, The FCA, HSBC, Toyota, McDonald’s, Heinz, The Guardian, Channel 4, L'Oreal, Marks & Spencer, Hargreaves Lansdown and Sainsbury’s.
We observe that Alphabet shares have rallied 27.7% year to date, outperforming the industry’s 21.8% gain.
Increasing Manpower
YouTube will deploy more human resource toward identifying unsuitable content and expects the number of employees working on this to cross 10,000 in 2018. YouTube is also collaborating with industry groups, academics and subject matter specialists to gain better insight into emerging issues.
The company stated that since June, the trust and safety teams have manually reviewed nearly 2 million videos for inappropriate content, aiding its machine-learning technology to find similar videos. Teams are collaborating with various child safety organizations across the world to report unacceptable activities and accounts to law enforcement bodies.
Google has been deploying machine learning to flag inappropriate contents for quite some time now and is expanding this capacity to other challenging areas of content.
YouTube has an automated software that detects problematic videos and is expanding its reach to those videos that contain hate speech or are against child safety.
Stricter Criteria, Regular Reports
The company plans to implement stringent standards, increase manual curation and significantly expand ad review teams to safeguard advertisers and creators from unsuitable content.
The company is planning to produce regular reports containing information about the flags it receives and the steps taken to remove policy violating videos and comments.
Our Take
Steps like these make sense as advertisements are extremely important to Alphabet from a business standpoint. We believe that regular policy updates will help Google not only address the growing controversy about misinformation on the web but also put up a clean image to advertisers.
There are only two really big digital ad-serving platforms, Facebook and YouTube. The platforms draw large number of users and it’s advantageous for brands to have a presence on both.
So, while YouTube can’t take too hard a stand when negotiating with brands, it may also avoid getting pushed into a corner; more so because it can also point to Google Preferred to access the top 5% content on YouTube (at a premium of course). The bottom line impact will also likely be insignificant because Google is already investing in artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance its algorithms and search results.
A couple of better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector include Activision Blizzard and Five9 (FIVN - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Long-term earnings per share growth rate for Activision and Five9 is projected to be 13.8% and 20%, respectively.
Looking for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside?
Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana.
Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look.
Image: Bigstock
Alphabet's YouTube to Toughen Stance on Disturbing Content
Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOGL - Free Report) YouTube announced on Monday that it is planning tougher initiatives to free its platform from harsh, violent and disturbing videos and comments.
Google has been revamping its policies since the YouTube ad controversy surfaced in March. The issue that primarily centered on the U.K., went global in no time, with over 250 brands suspending their advertising on YouTube. The list included big names from private as well as public sectors including Transport for London, The FCA, HSBC, Toyota, McDonald’s, Heinz, The Guardian, Channel 4, L'Oreal, Marks & Spencer, Hargreaves Lansdown and Sainsbury’s.
We observe that Alphabet shares have rallied 27.7% year to date, outperforming the industry’s 21.8% gain.
Increasing Manpower
YouTube will deploy more human resource toward identifying unsuitable content and expects the number of employees working on this to cross 10,000 in 2018. YouTube is also collaborating with industry groups, academics and subject matter specialists to gain better insight into emerging issues.
The company stated that since June, the trust and safety teams have manually reviewed nearly 2 million videos for inappropriate content, aiding its machine-learning technology to find similar videos. Teams are collaborating with various child safety organizations across the world to report unacceptable activities and accounts to law enforcement bodies.
Alphabet Inc. Revenue (TTM)
Alphabet Inc. Revenue (TTM) | Alphabet Inc. Quote
Using Machine Learning
Google has been deploying machine learning to flag inappropriate contents for quite some time now and is expanding this capacity to other challenging areas of content.
YouTube has an automated software that detects problematic videos and is expanding its reach to those videos that contain hate speech or are against child safety.
Stricter Criteria, Regular Reports
The company plans to implement stringent standards, increase manual curation and significantly expand ad review teams to safeguard advertisers and creators from unsuitable content.
The company is planning to produce regular reports containing information about the flags it receives and the steps taken to remove policy violating videos and comments.
Our Take
Steps like these make sense as advertisements are extremely important to Alphabet from a business standpoint. We believe that regular policy updates will help Google not only address the growing controversy about misinformation on the web but also put up a clean image to advertisers.
There are only two really big digital ad-serving platforms, Facebook and YouTube. The platforms draw large number of users and it’s advantageous for brands to have a presence on both.
So, while YouTube can’t take too hard a stand when negotiating with brands, it may also avoid getting pushed into a corner; more so because it can also point to Google Preferred to access the top 5% content on YouTube (at a premium of course). The bottom line impact will also likely be insignificant because Google is already investing in artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance its algorithms and search results.
Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider
Alphabet has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
A couple of better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector include Activision Blizzard and Five9 (FIVN - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Long-term earnings per share growth rate for Activision and Five9 is projected to be 13.8% and 20%, respectively.
Looking for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside?
Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana.
Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look.
See the pot trades we're targeting>>