YouTube Serves POTUS and Thai Teen Girls?

The wisest among you learn to read your portents well
There’s no need to hurry because the road is all downhill to Hell…

From Don’t Stand Still by The Original Snakeboy

Firedoglake and Redstate have done a great job in focusing public attention on the scandal of Google’s profiting from human trafficking by means of Android applications (see Jane Hamsher Rep. Carolyn Maloney: Google Android Sex App “Appalling Beyond Belief” and Breeanne Howe “Google Profits from Sex Trafficking“).

But one thing we weren’t quite prepared for is the kinds of videos that Google sells ads against on YouTube.  Try searching YouTube for “Thai teen girls” and this is what you get:

So in case you don’t know about Pattaya girls, let’s Google them–and check out the paid ad:

So if you were to ask Google about this, they would probably tell you about all the money they’ve given to trafficking organizations (perhaps the International Justice Mission, for example).

But Jane Hamsher has an interesting point about the bona fides of such contributions:

Google’s response was to promote its Google Ideas Initiative [run by the Most Interesting Man in the World], which burnishes its image with NGO’s working in the field but really didn’t address its own role in profiting from advertizing of what they acknowledge is an annual $2.1 trillion industry.  Or what they’re doing to limit the use of Google’s networks in its perpetuation.

So given that Google is making so much money from advertising on human trafficking, I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised to see this ad:

A little free advice to the Obama campaign–don’t buy (or take donations of) that run of site ad inventory.  There’s no telling where you might end up.  Which is exactly what happens when Google serves ads for legitimate brands to pirate sites.