Almost a month on from the discovery of homophobic ads on its platform, YouTube has issued an apology to the LGBTQ community.

Last month an ad by Alliance Defending Freedom, which is a legal firm with a terrible track record of attacking gay rights, was seen running on YouTube - and at times alongside LGBT content.

Other ads were also spotted, including one by conservative commentator ASKDrBrown which cites the bible in arguing that homosexuality is a ‘sin’. This all compounded problems with content from LGBT creators being demonetised persist a year after the problem was first highlighted.

“It’s the last day of Pride Month and we wanted to reach out to the LGBTQ community. We’re proud of the incredible LGBTQ voices on our platform and the important role you play in the lives of young people,” YouTube said in a series of tweets.

Action plan

“But we’ve also had issues where we let the LGBTQ community down–inappropriate ads and concerns about how we’re enforcing our monetization policy. We're sorry and we want to do better," YouTube added.

“We’ve taken action on the ads that violate our policies, and we are tightening our enforcement. And when we hear concerns about how we’re implementing our monetization policy, we take them seriously and make improvements if needed.

“It's critical to us that the LGBTQ community feels safe, welcome, equal, and supported on YouTube. Your work is incredibly powerful and we are committed to working with you to get this right.”

What the apology lacks, however, is much in the way of concrete details about how the platform intends to tackle these issues.