Apparently not content to only fight with Twitter over bot and spam accounts, Elon has kicked his war against the shady Big Tech into high gear by calling out one of Alphabet’s subsidiary companies, YouTube, for what he described as “nonstop scam ads” in a series of tweets.
That first came in a tweet in which he said pretty much exactly that, noting that:
YouTube seems to be nonstop scam ads
YouTube seems to be nonstop scam ads
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 7, 2022
He later responded to a comment to his tweet in which one user, joking about the scammy, annoying nature of many ads on YouTube, said:
“Are you a [insert state] homeowner? Here’s how you can get solar for free blah blah blah…”
“Stop what your doing right now if you want to become a millionaire like me in 5 easy steps…”
Responding to that tweet, one that did a pretty good job articulating what he was complaining about, Elon said:
Yeah, exactly. Also, other companies are using the Tesla name for solar and Powerwall. Will put a stop to that.
Yeah, exactly. Also, other companies are using the Tesla name for solar and Powerwall. Will put a stop to that.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 7, 2022
Oh, and he also fired off a tweet complaining about what he perceives to be Twitter’s insouciance in dealing with scam ads, particularly as compared to things like swearing, saying:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 7, 2022
While Elon seems to be upset with how YouTube treats swearing, it should be noting that swearing isn’t disallowed by YouTube. While its guidelines encourage creators to not use language that might be deemed appropriate for advertising purposes, foul language isn’t totally banned, but rather some videos with “frequent use of strong profanity ot vulgarity” are demonetized (though typically not music videos).
Business Insider quotes a YouTube spokesperson as saying, in response to Elon’s criticism of the scammy ads on its platform:
“We have a range of ads policies that are designed to combat scams and other deceptive practices by bad actors, including policies that prohibit ads impersonating other brands and trademark abuse.
“These policies apply to all Google Ads, including those on YouTube, and we enforce them vigorously – in 2021 alone we blocked or removed 175 million ads across our platform for violating our misrepresentation and trademark policies.”
Elon’s criticism of YouTube’s ad policies could signify two things.
On one hand, perhaps what is most likely is that Elon was trying to watch something on YouTube and got annoyed by the ridiculous ads that kept popping up, or is still angry about the ad for a fake SpaceX coin that appeared before his SNL performance, and so tweeted about the annoying ads. Given his temperament, that’s certainly likely.
On the other hand, it could signal that Elon is somehow planning on targeting YouTube as he targeted Twitter, using his platform, fortune, and brains to attack one of the numerous problems with Big Tech.
How he might do so is unclear, as Google is far larger than Twitter. However, it’s never wise to count Elon out, as Tesla’s startling performance, SpaceX’s incredible innovation, and his Twitter buyout show.
By: Gen Z Conservative, editor of GenZConservative.com. Follow me on Parler and Gettr.
This story syndicated with permission from Will, Author at Trending Politics