73 per cent stories on LGBTQ websites flagged as 'unsafe' by scared brands: Survey

Brands don't want their ads to appear next to controversial content on a given website. However, a new survey reveals how brands end up labelling stories on LGBTQ websites 'unsafe' for ad placement.

Brand safety company CHEQ researched keyword blocking across 15 major sites including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian, and the Wall Street Journal and discovered that 57 per cent of neutral or positive stories were being incorrectly flagged as unsafe for brands, Fast Company reports.

It also discovered that 73 per cent of safe stories on LGBTQ web sites such as PinkNews and the Advocate are also flagged as brand unsafe, impacting content monetising. Researchers attribute it to the inability of ad networks to distinguish between positive LGBTQ content and potentially negative content such as pornography or hate speech.