YouTube is continuing its war on “misinformation” by rolling out info panels containing messages from fact-checkers to search results on the platform.
The panels have already been tested in Brazil and India throughout 2019 and show up when a user searches for a topic that YouTube deems to be problematic.
This month, YouTube’s CEO controversially said that YouTube would remove anything that goes against the World Health Organization, a group that have been widely criticized in recent months.
Now, YouTube is looking to further enforce its stance on correct information by using its body of fact-checkers to editorialize users’ searches on the platform.
“When users are searching on YouTube around a specific claim, we want to give an opportunity for those fact checks to show up right then and there, when our users are looking for information — especially around fast-moving. quickly changing topics like COVID-19,” said Neal Mohan, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, who recently outlined YouTube’s stance against independent content creators “espousing” their opinions “in their basement.”
“Misinformation that comes up quickly as part of a fast-moving news cycle, where unfounded claims and uncertainty about facts are common. (For example, a false report that COVID-19 is a bio-weapon.) Our fact check information panels provide fresh context in these situations by highlighting relevant, third-party fact-checked articles above search results for relevant queries, so that our viewers can make their own informed decision about claims made in the news,” YouTube announced.
Fact-checkers who are already in the program include PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, and The Washington Post’s fact-checker.
Any fact-checker who is part of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) is allowed to participate in the new information panels, the organization that Google recently committed to donating $1 million to.
