The social media platform audit was based on the Media Responsibility Principles Mediabrands recently released to the public, which are geared toward protecting brands and the communities that a brand serves, weighing the impact of harmful content, and evaluating the policies of different platforms and their enforcement.

The Media Responsibility Audit included doing a comprehensive assessment of all the primary social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, twitch, Twitter, and YouTube) against the 10 principles to check current status and accountability against each principle. The audit was comprised of 250 questions in total and focused on establishing a benchmark on what a responsible platform looks like.

Led by Mediabrands’ performance agency, Reprise, the audit showed that many platforms are taking steps to improve their media responsibility performance. Major findings revealed what average versus great looks like, as well as who is leading and setting the standards for the industry. 

Every media partner was benchmarked against the best-in-class result, and Mediabrands was able to create tables that rank media partners overall and how they perform against the industry average.  A key finding, that YouTube tops the overall rankings and performs best against several principles, is a testament to the changes YouTube has made in response to advertiser brand safety concerns three years ago.  The audit will occur quarterly to enable platforms to demonstrate progress and help clients hold media partners accountable to commitments to improve. 

“The Mediabrands’ Media Responsibility Audit comes on the heels of the challenge to the industry to ensure we are all taking part in safeguarding the media channels that are used in advertising, and furthermore, making sure they do not result in or contribute to harm,” said Joshua Lowcock, Chief Digital Officer, UM, and Global Brand Safety Officer, Mediabrands.

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