Travel companies accused of accidentally funding terror groups
Top travel brands Sandals, Eurotunnel and Disney are unwittingly funding extremists by advertising on their websites, according to a national newspaper investigation.
The Times revealed that adverts for hundreds of household brands, universities and charities appear on hate sites and YouTube videos posted by supporters of terror groups such as Islamic State and Combat 18, a violent pro-Nazi faction.
It claimed such adverts could raise tens of thousands of pounds a month for extremists. An advert appearing alongside a YouTube video typically earns the poster $7.60 for every 1,000 views, said the paper.
Some of the most popular extremist videos have more than one million hits.
The Times claimed its analysis of online extremist content revealed that blacklists designed to prevent digital adverts from appearing next to it were ‘not fit for purpose’.
A video promoting al-Shabaab, the East African jihadist group affiliated to al- Qaeda, appears next to an advert for Sandals Resorts, although a spokeswoman for the luxury operator said that it made ‘every effort’ to stop its adverts appearing next to inappropriate content.
It said that YouTube had ‘not properly categorised the video’ as sensitive.
Adverts for Eurotunnel and JD Sports appear on ‘alt-right’ and Islamist websites, including one promoting a ‘Holocaust Amnesia Day’.
Adverts for Disney, John Lewis and Dropbox are embedded in sunnah-online.com, which hosts lectures by Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, a preacher banned from Britain who has argued that a husband cannot be charged with rape, and Esa al-Hindi, a terrorist given a life prison sentence.
Many companies said that they were unaware of and ‘deeply concerned’ by their presence on such sites. They blamed programmatic advertising, a system using complex computer technology to buy digital adverts in the milliseconds that a webpage takes to load.
A Google spokeswoman told The Times that it had a ‘zero-tolerance policy for content that incites violence or hatred’ and that advertisers could choose not to appear against content they considered inappropriate.
In a statement, Google, which owns Youtube, said: "When it comes to content on YouTube, we remove flagged videos that break our rules and have a zero tolerance policy for content that incites violence or hatred.
"Some content on YouTube may be controversial and offensive, which is why we only allow advertising against videos which fall within our advertising guidelines.
"Our partners can also choose choose not to appear against content they consider inappropriate, and we have a responsibility to work with the industry to help them make informed choices."
The six top advertising agencies each denied any wrongdoing, conflict of interest, or sharp practice and said their relationships with clients were transparent.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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