Multiple platforms have been responsible for the spread of false and misleading content among the public during the last US Presidential elections. Therefore, a lot of these platforms have started to work on their role in this matter. Among them, YouTube apparently plays a significant role in being one of the most frequently used social media platforms for general awareness. For this reason, YouTube has recently introduced a new update that explains that it has been working on the flow of relevant and accurate news only.
According to the new update, YouTube has been working over the years to reduce the spread of misinformation that is potentially harmful. It has introduced over 30 new changes since January 2019 to reduce the recommendations of such content. As a result, there has been significant progress regarding this matter which seems to be promising. YouTube continues to add more changes. For instance, it can be seen how YouTube now exhibits information panels on content that is prone to misinformation. Links to relevant sources in this feature provide further insight as well.
"Over the past couple of years, we've been working to raise authoritative voices on YouTube and reduce the spread of borderline content and harmful misinformation. And we are already seeing great progress. Authoritative news is thriving on our site. And since January 2019, we’ve launched over 30 different changes to reduce recommendations of borderline content and harmful misinformation. The result is a 70% average drop in watch time of this content coming from non-subscribed recommendations in the U.S.", said YouTube.
YouTube has further stated that it is trying to prioritize “authoritative voices” for queries related to news and information in both the “search results” and “watch next” options. Moreover, borderline content, which does not exactly violate the Community Guidelines of YouTube is also being looked into. The option to “hide comments” under certain videos is another addition to the recent changes.
All these tests and changes have yielded pretty much positive outcomes in relation to reducing the spread of misinformation and “fake news”. However, this judgment can only be more accurate once the Presidential Election cycle reaches its peak.
