A New Study Shows That Three-Quarters Of Articles On LGBT+ Topics Were Flagged As “Inappropriate”

According to a new report from the ad-verification firm Cheq, nearly three-quarters of articles on LGBT+ friendly sites are flagged as “brand-unsafe” and “potentially pornographic”.

Marked as unsafe for advertisers these publishers are denied ad dollars which sometimes have disastrous results.

“We don’t produce particularly contentious topics, and we take the same impartial editorial approach as the BBC,” said Benjamin Cohen, CEO of PinkNews. “But the truth is, no matter what, the very nature of gay culture is going to be contentious to some people.”

“From an ad agency perspective, an article on lesbian sexual health is an article about porn,” he explained. “But stories about lesbian actresses or politicians, we’re finding those blocked from a lot of ad agencies as well.”

The study referenced a blacklist of 2,000 words commonly used to prevent brands from appearing inline next to odious content. Alongside words like “death” and “injury” Words like “lesbians”, “bisexuals” and “drag queens” appear.

Blacklists have been a dominant tool in the brand-safety world “ever since the dawn of ad verification” Cheq CSO Daniel Avital notes.

“I think what happened was this became a very big deal for advertisers, and people like Marc Pritchard and Keith Weed were rightfully very vocal about having to put an end to this problem—and swiftly,” he explained. “So there was a lot of pressure on all the supply chain to get this solved, and keywords were the lowest-hanging fruit.”

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