NYC — With the help of Check My Ads Institute’s advocacy efforts, today, Senator Blackburn and Senator Blumenthal have sent letters to the CEOs of four advertising technology firms and two industry standards bodies demanding answers about their respective involvement in the monetization of a website that has been known to host Child Sexual Abuse Material (“CSAM”) since 2021.
The letters reference new research indicating that Google, Amazon, and other adtech vendors have placed advertising on a website that has been known since 2021 to host CSAM. Further, the research indicates that advertisers had their ads served on this website despite working with incumbent ad verification firms Integral Ad Science (“IAS”) and DoubleVerify (“DV”).
The adtech companies and verification firms hold certifications from industry standards bodies, Trustworthy Accountability Group (“TAG”) and Media Rating Council (“MRC”)-certified. To that end, the Senators also urge TAG and MRC to begin adequately enforcing their standards to prevent accredited vendors from continuing to fund and profit from CSAM and other illegal websites.
“The business model of the internet is advertising, and that business model is broken. Brands don’t know where their money is going, while adtech companies continue to place ads next to illegal content, thereby helping bad actors profit. Google and Amazon’s monetization of CSAM contradicts their stated polices. It is a violation of United States law. And it is heartbreaking for the victims directly affected by these crimes. By enabling the dissemination and monetization of CSAM, Google and Amazon are financially exploiting the abuse of the most vulnerable among us.
We are encouraged by Senator Blackburn and Senator Blumenthal’s leadership in investigating how these adtech companies continuously harm children and American businesses,” said Sarah Kay Wiley, Director of Policy at Check My Ads Institute.
“For years, industry-certified adtech vendors failed to prevent funding a website known to host CSAM. This is a failure at every step of the adtech supply chain at the expense of advertisers, and in this case, of children. We are grateful for Senator Blackburn and Senator Blumenthal’s leadership in demanding action not only by these adtech vendors, but by the industry bodies that provide them with air cover. The fig leaf is gone, and the need for change is clear.
While we can split hairs about what specific metrics they were MRC-accredited for, or debate around the loopholes and edges of meticulously-chiseled standards, let’s be clear: advertisers working with these certified vendors inadvertently funded child abuse. And, without page URL-level placement detail, they were essentially powerless in their ability to identify or stop it.
Is this what it means to be TAG-certified or MRC-accredited? Is this what advertisers expect?
If industry bodies, through their standards or enforcement, don’t prohibit and condemn this heinous failure, then they are effectively operating as little more than a protection racket.
This could have been prevented by basic Know-Your-Customer diligence on the part of Google, Amazon, and the other SSPs. It could have been curbed by ad verification firms providing advertisers with readily-accessible page URL-level insight into where their ads appeared, instead of false promises and white papers. For the many advertisers that are rightfully angered by these revelations, remember that you don’t need to rely on TAG and MRC to establish these as your own standards for the vendors that you choose to work with,” said Arielle Garcia, Chief Operating Officer at Check My Ads Institute
It is imperative that these companies take immediate and comprehensive action, and we intend to see to it that they do. Check My Ads Institute calls upon all advertisers, publishers, and citizens concerned with protecting victims of child sexual abuse to join us in pushing both the industry and policymakers to address these shortcomings and ensure such failures do not recur.
Additional highlights are below:
- The research identifies instances of advertisers’ ads being placed by Google and Amazon’s advertising technologies on a website known by National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) since at least 2021 to host illegal CSAM. The US Government had its own advertising placed on this website. Many of these advertisers also worked with ad verification firms, DV and IAS.
- Despite being “certified” for adhering to industry standards, each of these vendors failed to prevent advertisers from inadvertently subsidizing CSAM, and profited from monetizing this illicit website.
- Advertisers were unable to readily access page URL-level data that would have allowed them to identify and curtail the inadvertent funding of CSAM. By withholding readily-accessible URL-level data, these adtech vendors stymied the ability of advertisers to steward their own investment, prevent harm to their brand, and stop the funding of child abuse.
Advertisers cited in the research as having had their ads placed by these vendors on the CSAM-hosting website include:
| Adidas | Hallmark | PepsiCo: Gatorade |
| Adobe | HBO Max | Puma |
| Allianz | Honda | Reckitt Benckiser: Mucinex |
| Amazon: Amazon Prime, Audible, Whole Foods | HP | SC Johnson: OFF! Bug Spray |
| Brita | J.M. Smucker Company – Meow Mix | Samsung |
| Clorox | Kenvue | Sanofi Consumer Health |
| Colgate | Kimberly-Clark Corporation: KCC, Depend | Save The Children |
| Department of Homeland Security | Kodak | Sony Interactive Entertainment: Audeze |
| Domino’s Pizza | L’Oreal | Starbucks |
| Duracell | Lay’s Potato Chips | Tom Brady: TB12 |
| Dyson | Leukemia & Lymphoma Society | Travel Texas – Office of the Governor, Economic Development and Tourism |
| Fanduel / NFL | Mastercard | Uber Eats |
| Galderma: Cetaphil | Nestle | Unilever |
###
About Check My Ads Institute
Check My Ads Institute, the digital advertising watchdog, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit established in 2021 to build a better internet business model for advertisers, publishers and people. We shine a light on the opaque global advertising technology industry, which has enabled systemic manipulation and fraud, through unfettered access to its vast infrastructure: ads, advertiser budgets and our own intimate personal information. The unregulated transfer of power takes place largely outside the view of advertisers, regulators, and citizens. Check My Ads is pushing for accountability in the digital advertising industry through consumer-informed, free-market solutions and common-sense state, federal, and international regulation. We believe that advertisers and the public deserve transparency and choice.