YouTube's Latest Quandary Deepens as AT&T Joins Ad Pause
- Google site faces criticism for recommending videos of minors
- Nestle, Disney among major companies that halted ad purchases
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AT&T Inc. joined Kellogg Co., Nestle SA, Walt Disney Co. and other major consumer brands in pausing their ad spending on Google’s YouTube video-sharing site over concerns that the platform can be used to forge networks of people engaged in exploitation of children.
AT&T and Kellogg said Thursday they had halted advertising on YouTube. That adds two major U.S. consumer brands to a growing list of companies that have done the same, including supplements retailer GNC Holdings Inc., top Canadian telecom BCE Inc., video-game maker Epic Games Inc., food giant Nestle and German packaged goods company Dr. August Oetker KG. Disney had also stopped advertising, according to people familiar with the situation.