In the wake of breaking news events when misinformation can spread quickly, YouTube will begin showing users short text previews of news stories in video search results.
Google's
YouTube
says it is taking several steps to ensure the veracity of news on its
service by cracking down on misinformation and supporting news
organisations.
The
company said on Monday that it will make "authoritative"
news sources more prominent, especially in the wake of breaking news
events when misinformation can spread quickly.
At
such times, YouTube will begin showing users short text previews of
news stories in video search results, as well as warnings that the
stories can change. The goal is to counter the fake videos that can
proliferate immediately after shootings, natural disasters and other
major happenings.
For
example, YouTube search results prominently showed videos purporting
to "prove" that mass shootings like the one that killed at
least 59 in Las Vegas were fake, acted out by "crisis actors."
In
these urgent cases, traditional video won't do, since it takes time
for news outlets to produce and verify high-quality clips. So YouTube
aims to short-circuit the misinformation loop with text stories that
can quickly provide more accurate information. Company executives
announced the effort at YouTube's New York offices.
Those
officials, however, offered only vague descriptions of which sources
YouTube will consider authoritative. Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan
said the company isn't just compiling a simple list of trusted news
outlets, noted that the definition of authoritative is "fluid"
and then added the caveat that it won't simply boil down to sources
that are popular on YouTube.
He
added that 10,000 human reviewers at Google, so-called search quality
raters who monitor search results around the world, are helping
determine what will count as authoritative sources and news stories.
Alexios
Mantzarlis, a Poynter Institute faculty member who helped Facebook
team up with fact-checkers (including The Associated Press), said the
text story snippet at the top of search results was "cautiously
a good step forward."
But
he worried what would happen to fake
news videos that were simply recommended by YouTube's
recommendation engine and would appear in feeds without being
searched.
He
said it would be preferable if Google used people instead of
algorithms to vet fake news.
"Facebook
was reluctant to go down that path two and half years ago and then
they did," he said.
YouTube
also said it will commit $25 million over the next several years to
improving news on YouTube and tackling "emerging challenges"
such as misinformation. That sum includes funding to help news
organisations around the world build "sustainable video
operations," such as by training staff and improving production
facilities. The money would not fund video creation.
The
company is also testing ways to counter conspiracy videos with
generally trusted sources such as Wikipedia and Encyclopedia
Britannica.
For
common conspiracy subjects, what YouTube delicately calls
"well-established historical and scientific topics that have
often been subject to misinformation," such as the moon landing
and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Google will add information from
such third parties for users who search on these topics.
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