Edinburgh Live removes ‘racist’ ads after reader backlash

A group of adverts have been removed from the Edinburgh Live website after complaints they were 'racist' and 'encouraging division'.

Five paid-for promotional posts all mentioned 'immigrants' or 'migrants', alongside images of piles of cash or people wearing headscarves. The sponsored post headlines included: 

• ‘UK Locals Are Stunned: Why Immigrants Are Getting Richer’ 
• ‘How immigrants in the UK achieve success without a steady job’ 
• ‘UK wage negotiation for migrants: a structured approach’ 

The owners of Edinburgh Live have now removed the posts after questioning from The Edinburgh Minute. Reach PLC responded saying it would 'ensure that these ads or ones like these do not appear on our sites'. The posts were first highlighted last week by a Minute reader named Sonny, who said: 

"I was scrolling down on an Edinburgh Live article on mobile (yes it hurt my eyes), but I was absolutely shocked at how many AI generated sponsored ads about 'immigrants' they have mixed in with their articles, it seems like their ads are either wilfully unregulated or they know what is happening and letting it happen, and I don't know which is worse. 

"They are provocative and racist, I found it especially concerning that their ads blend in with their regular headlines, so someone scrolling could think it's a genuine headline. I'm also aware that they're owned by a bigger company that churn out the same templates across multiple cities, and so whilst not just an Edinburgh specific thing, it feels very concerning knowing these are promoted across the UK encouraging division. It's sad that these things need to be called out and aren't guard-railed to begin with."

An investigation into the advertisers, 'Medinitiatives', 'Sevenmesh' and 'Swgeo', reveals a network of 'lead generation' websites which sometimes use provocative, racially-charged headlines in adverts, some AI-generated content and '90-second assessments' inviting people into sharing personal data, which is then sold to third parties. 

Selling readers' data to third parties is core to the Edinburgh Live website and is common on nationally-owned groups of 'local' news sites.

The Edinburgh Live homepage pop-up currently asks readers to allow permission for: ‘our 1,703 partners to store and access information on your device (e.g., cookies, device identifiers) and process personal data (e.g., unique identifiers, browsing data) for personalized advertising, content measurement, audience insights, and other specified purposes.’ These include ‘precise geolocation and device scanning technologies’. It’s all legitimate but part of a carefully co-ordinated system where the number of clicks and views mean more income.

Edinburgh Live’s parent company Reach PLC describes itself as 'the UK's largest commercial news publisher' with 120 titles including the Daily Record, Mirror, Daily Star and the Express, as well as equivalents to Edinburgh Live in cities across the country.

In response to questions from The Edinburgh Minute, Reach said the promoted posts had slipped through internal 'guardrails' and admitted it could 'improve'. Last year the firm announced its new strategic priorities included 'accelerating the use of tech and AI'.

The company sent this statement from Neil McIntosh, Reach Editor-in-Chief (Scotland), who oversees Edinburgh Live among a network of websites: 

"These ads have come via a partner's automated programmatic advertising and we have instructed them to remove this from the feed. While we already have guardrails in place with our partners we are taking further steps to improve these and to ensure that these ads or ones like these do not appear on our sites. We encourage any reader to come to us with any concerns or feedback."

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