YouTube on Thursday outlined new efforts it plans to make to address misinformation. In a blog post, YouTube chief product officer Neal Mohan noted that stopping misinformation before it spreads, limiting cross-platform sharing of misinformation, and better handling misinformation in languages other than English are three areas of focus.
YouTube’s focus on cross-platform sharing will limit views of videos that are edge cases under the company’s current misinformation guidelines. YouTube said tweaks to its recommendation system have significantly reduced consumption of these fringe videos on its platform, but traffic from other sites embedding and linking to them remains a problem.
Possible workarounds for this include disabling the share button, or breaking links to videos that have been suppressed on YouTube, Mohan said. Warnings that videos may contain misinformation are another possible fix, and YouTube’s approach to images and age-restricted content.
To stop misinformation around the world, YouTube is considering building larger, culturally-savvy teams and partnerships with NGOs and local experts. YouTube may also add new tags to videos on emerging, fast-moving topics such as natural disasters.
The measures are the latest in YouTube’s attempt to strike a balance between safety and suppression of misinformation and free speech, an issue that has been brought to the fore throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. YouTube is the largest source of online video, with over 2 billion monthly users.
“We need to carefully balance limiting the spread of potentially harmful misinformation while allowing space for discussion and education on sensitive and controversial topics,” Mohan said.
But critics say YouTube hasn’t done enough to fix the problem. In January, more than 80 fact-checking groups sent a letter to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki demanding more action on misinformation on the platform.