Kha Banh’s channel on YouTube has been locked because of violations of YouTube’s terms of service. The YouTube channel of Duong Minh Tuyen, dubbed as ‘thanh chui’ (master of cursing), has also been stopped because of repeated violations of the YouTube policy on violence prevention.

The presence of content channels that promote violence and profanity on YouTube have caused a headache to businesses which advertise on the network. Some days ago, the Vietnam Maritime Bank (MSB) decided to stop advertising on YouTube. .

The move of the bank was similar to what VInamilk, Vinhomes and Ford Vietnam did in March 2017. The big businesses pulled ads from YouTube after the state management agency found 8,000 videos with bad content that promoted violence and provided incorrect information on 15 channels and personal accounts.

YouTube offers many choices for ads, from 6-second and 15-second ads before content video clips, to banners on videos. Some agents offer the surprisingly low price of VND500 only for one click on ads. Other agents have committed to prevent ads from appearing on bad clips.

However, experts say that no one can guarantee that clients’ ads will appear in the right places.

“Before running ads, you have the right to refuse to post ads on certain channels to protect the prestige of your brands,” said Viet Phuong, who works for an ad agent.

He said the agent has been checking clients’ ads since the Kha Banh scandal.

Phuong said most agents in Vietnam can prevent videos with ‘sensitive political issues’, but it is difficult to control entertainment channels, because the channels attract a high number of viewers.

However, more and more entertainment clips with bad content that promote violence have appeared.

Vo Do Thang, a cybersecurity and marketing expert, said businesses should cooperate closely with ad agents to establish ‘filtration units’ that prevent ads from appearing on the videos with bad content.

Meanwhile, Phuong said his agent advised clients to run ads on moderately popular videos, not the ‘top hot’ channels on YouTube.

Many businesses do not want to refuse the platform which has a high number of viewers. The Ministry of Information and Communication estimated that Google and Facebook make up 80 percent of the online ad market share in Vietnam.

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Mai Chi