YouTube to ‘Fact-Check’ Video Searches Which Feature ‘Misinformation’

Google’s video platform YouTube is set to roll out a “fact-check” feature on video searches that are “prone to misinformation,” warning users that certain topics are “FAKE.”

According to BuzzFeed, YouTube will display “boxes of text that provide debunks from YouTube’s verified fact-checking partners” when “people search for topics that are ‘prone to misinformation.'”

“These panels will show up on pages of search results rather than on individual videos. To be clear: Videos containing misinformation can still appear in the search results, but YouTube will generate these disclaimers when a query involves sensitive topics, with the intent to inform viewers as the company deals with the spread of misinformation on the platform,” BuzzFeed reported, adding that the feature is currently being tested in India, and will subsequently be rolled out globally.

YouTube’s fact-check panels will declare warnings like, “Hoax Alert!” and “FAKE” when users search for certain topics.

A YouTube spokesman told BuzzFeed, “As part of our ongoing efforts to build a better news experience on YouTube, we are expanding our information panels to bring fact checks from eligible publishers to YouTube,” however the fact-checking partners were not listed.

BuzzFeed reported that YouTube is using many of the same fact-checking partners as Facebook, which have included Snopes, Politifact, and the now-defunct neoconservative magazine Weekly Standard.

In 2018, YouTube introduced fact-checking to videos, providing information snippets from the unreliable website Wikipedia, which anyone can edit, in an effort to combat “conspiracy theories,” including videos which question climate change. The online encyclopedia has blacklisted Breitbart News from being used as a “reliable source.”

Last year, a report claimed the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which had to pay Muslim anti-extremist Maajid Nawaz $3.3 million after smearing him on a list of “Anti-Muslim Extremists,” had been helping YouTube to police content.