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President Donald Trump has made China a target of his re-election crusade; ironically, some of the advertising expenses of his crusade budget Chinese state YouTube channels.
This month, at least 22 classified ads from Trump’s crusade were streamed on YouTube channels connected to the Chinese government, according to a new report by Washington-based cybersecurity company Omelas, first covered through Bloomberg. The report also revealed that 39 Trump campaign announcements were being broadcast on Russian-owned YouTube channels in the same period.
The effects aren’t really surprising, as the Trump campaign is one of YouTube’s leading buyers of classified ads and Omelas conducted their research with IP protection in Missouri, a transition state. But they show how the chaotic online advertising ecosystem can create accomplices between advertisers and content creators.
Trump’s management has already taken strong action on how Chinese media can function in the United States. Management called five Chinese media “foreign missions” in February, requiring them to sign in their homes and prohibiting them from obtaining U.S. permission for new ones.
A spokesman for Trump’s crusade did not promptly respond to Business Insider’s request for comment. The crusade told Bloomberg that it did not deliberately acquire classified ads to serve on state YouTube channels, but on news channels in general.
Trump’s crusade has spent $48 million since May on classified ads from Google, which owns YouTube, according to Google’s transparency report. Known classified ads through Omelas make up less than $25 in spending, a Google spokesperson told Business Insider.
Google’s advertising platform allows advertisers to target express demographics such as age, gender or location, as well as express types of content, such as media. Advertisers can disable advertising across channels or express sites.