The Guardian’s chief executive David Pemsel said it was “completely unacceptable” for its advertising to be misused in this way, and that the newspaper would remove its advertising until Google can “provide guarantees that this ad misplacement via Google and YouTube will not happen in the future”.

Also the UK government and Channel 4 have also removed advertising from the platform for the same reason. Google was summoned by ministers to explain how it will deliver advertising services that the “government demands on behalf of the taxpayer”.

The incident highlights the problematic lack of control tied to programmatic trading of ads, as ads can appear in places where they should not. Pemsel called for other advertisers to follow the Guardian’s example until there are “guarantees that advertising placed on YouTube will not sit next to extremist content in the future”.