YouTube keynote presentation at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, ... [+]
YouTube announced today that it would be expanding its fact check information panels to the United States. Originally launched in Brazil and India last year, the fact check feature is intended to help users connect to the most authoritative sources. As more people come to YouTube for news and information and as coronavirus misinformation and disinformation continues to spread, this is the latest move by YouTube to both take responsibility for the content shared on its site and direct users to the most accurate information.
“We're now using these panels to help address an additional challenge: 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),” the blog post announcing this new feature reads.
The fact check information panel relies on third-party publishers like The Dispatch, FactCheck.org, PolitiFact and The Washington Post Fact Checker. Vetted articles will appear in search results with the ClaimReview tagging system, which is used by search engines and other social media platforms such as Google Search, Google News, Bing and Facebook in order to identify fact-check articles.
If you were to enter “covid and ibuprofen” into the YouTube search bar, for example, a panel would appear above the top hits with a link to an independent fact check that distills the truth of the matter, in this case, that there is no evidence to back claims that ibuprofen makes COVID-19 worse.
Fact check panel for search query: "covid and ibuprofen"
Fact check information panels will not just appear for any search query. To start, the appearance of the panel depends on the nature and specificity of the search query. If someone searches for “did a tornado hit Los Angeles,” a relevant article might pop up, but not if they just searched “tornado.” Another determinant of the panel would be the existence of a relevant fact check article available from an eligible publisher, so YouTube invites all U.S. publishers to participate as long as they follow ClaimReview standards and are either an authoritative publisher or a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network’s (IFCN) Code of Principles. Alongside this new feature, YouTube will also work to bolster the IFCN’s fact-checking and verification efforts by providing $1 million through the Google News Initiative.
Many say this is a massive step in the right direction, and coming at a particularly important time as malicious forces like China and Russia are busy creating a ‘perfect storm’ of coronavirus misinformation. But YouTube is careful not to overtly take down offending videos, instead trusting in the critical thinking capacities of humans and providing them with enough truthful context to make up their own minds.
“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,” the company writes.
Earlier this month, Facebook and Twitter introduced similar features; the former alerting users when they’ve come into contact with “harmful misinformation” about the virus, and the latter removing some misinformation and potentially harmful or dangerous posts detailing conspiracy theories related to coronavirus and 5G.
YouTube highlighted that it would take some time for its systems to fully ramp up and be as accurate as possible. Over time, this feature will be rolled out to more countries. It will be interesting to see what effect moves like YouTube’s fact check panel will have on the American psyche. By providing users with easy access to the most relevant, truthful and authoritative information, the company is giving users a chance to be reasonable. It is a glass-half-full mentality, one that insists that humans in general and Americans in particular just need to have the right information in order to make the right decisions. But in this post-information age, where the president has done a fantastic job of discrediting the ultimate watchdogs of society, the media, for many YouTubers, biases will out.
