Tech giants have a giant coronavirus problem

Hi and welcome to this week's Advertising & Media Insider newsletter, where we catch you up on all of our big BI Prime coverage of the past week. If you're new to this email, sign up for your own here.

This week: The coronavirus scare is providing yet another reminder of how inadequately the tech giants are prepared to deal with the consequences of the open nature of their platforms.

Amazon, Google, and Facebook built giant businesses based on this openness and automated sales processes, but at the cost of letting fake and misleading news and ads slip through all too often. We're seeing that again with the coronavirus, with ads popping up for masks that make fake medical claims and price gouging by coronavirus-related products.

Sure, the tech companies have moved to stamp out these practices, but to really stop the problem, they'd have to add a human (read: costly) level of oversight that would undercut the very nature of their business.

The result is scenarios like Lauren Johnson found of sellers popping up out of nowhere and finding an audience of potential buyers online.

Read about it here:

Face mask ads claiming to protect against coronavirus are popping up all over Google and Facebook, and the platforms are scrambling to stamp them out

Elsewhere, the ad and media industry continues to deal with the fallout of canceled events like SXSW while the fate of others like the Cannes Lions festival are still pending. As SXSW scrambles to figure out how to salvage the event, the bigger concern might be that its value was already on the wane, as Patrick Coffee found. Read his story here:

Email shows how SXSW is scrambling after a no-refund coronavirus cancellation that leaves sponsors and attendees hanging

And Netflix, once seen as untouchable, could face risk to its growth prospects. Whatever benefit it might get from increased streaming as people hunker down at home could be offset by a dampening of demand in overseas markets that are more vulnerable to the virus.

Read about it here:

3 reasons Netflix could be hurt by the coronavirus outbreak, despite reports that 'stay at home' stocks could benefit

Here are other highlights from advertising:

Fndr has advised Snapchat, Vice Media, and Glossier on their strategy. A pitch deck reveals the firm's brutally honest approach to working with founders.

Mike Bloomberg spun up a secretive agency to help his $600 million presidential bid. Now it's figuring out its next steps.

Aflac says its bet on in-housing is paying off, with $16 million saved over three years, even as some in-house shops hit a wall

NBCUniversal says it will be OK if the Olympics get cancelled, but it could lead to an unprecedented media disaster with tons of ramifications

Google is banning ads for medical masks from marketers trying to capitalize on the coronavirus scare

Mark Penn's Stagwell Group snapped up startup Headliner Labs to help clients take advantage of buzzy retail tech

And here are some great media stories to check out:

8 YouTube stars explain which videos made them the most money, including one that earned $97,000

Six Flags sent a survey asking customers how it should combat coronavirus fears, with measures ranging from face masks to taking temperatures

A teeth-whitening brand studied TikTok's algorithm to decide which influencers to hire and ending up gaining 100,000 followers in a week

How much money do YouTubers make a month? A minimalist influencer with 77,000 subscribers shares exactly what she earns and spends.

Netflix salary data reveals how much it paid for more than 30 roles across teams like marketing, product, and finance last year

See you next week. And we're always looking to make this newsletter better - send me tips and feedback at lmoses@businessinsider.com.