YouTube to roll out new fact-checking feature

March 7, 2019

With the constant influx of news, discerning between what’s fake information and what’s real is becoming increasingly more difficult. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter have taken measures to make sure their users are receiving the correct information, and now YouTube is continuing that effort with a new initiative.

According to BuzzFeed News, YouTube will begin to include “information panels” when people search for certain subjects that are “prone to misinformation.” The panels will flag incorrect information and provide corrections from the site’s fact-checkers.

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The panels will be seen on the search results page instead of on an individual video. Videos containing false information will still be seen in the search query, but there will be disclaimers when certain issues are looked into.

“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,” a spokesperson says.

The feature is currently available to some users in India and will eventually be released to the public, but the site has not stated exactly when.

According to The Times Of India, YouTube is partnering with third-party publishers such as BOOM, Quint, Factly, AFP and Jagran among others to flag false information to help people distinguish between what’s fact and what’s untrue.

There was a recent social panic that included the popular media site when a new internet challenge called “The Momo Challenge” surfaced.

The challenge takes on the form of a “game.” However, according to Rolling Stone, Momo, who takes on a strange, creepy woman figure with bulging eyes, tells kids to message her on WhatsApp for “instructions.” The character then challenges people to do increasingly dangerous tasks, which ultimately can lead to self-harm or even suicide.

Last week, YouTube demonontenized any video that was affiliated with the challenge saying such videos are against their policies.

We want to clear something up regarding the Momo Challenge: We’ve seen no recent evidence of videos promoting the Momo Challenge on YouTube. Videos encouraging harmful and dangerous challenges are against our policies.

— YouTube (@YouTube) February 27, 2019

Most recently, the challenge was revealed to be a hoax. YouTube still encourages its viewers to report any video that is potentially dangerous.

“No form of content that endangers minors is acceptable on YouTube, which is why we have terminated certain channels that attempt to endanger children in any way. Videos encouraging harmful and dangerous challenges targeting any audience are also clearly against our policies. We will continue to take action when creators violate our policies in ways that blatantly harm the broader user and creator community. Please continue to flag these to us.”

Many of you have been closely following what we’re doing to protect young people on YouTube. Here’s an update on our most recent actions. → https://t.co/6315XSUfbR

— YouTube (@YouTube) February 28, 2019