In a blog post, YouTube’s chief product officer, Neal Mohan, discussed new plans the video sharing social media platform is working on to catch “new misinformation before it goes viral,” including by disabling the share function and addressing ways to prevent the spread of misinformation in languages other than English.
Updates to YouTube’s classifier system have significantly reduced the consumption of conspiracy videos on the platform, but traffic from other sites embedding and linking to these videos remains an issue, the blog post read.
Potential fixes include disabling the share button or breaking links to videos already blocked on YouTube, said the platform’s chief product officer. “Another approach [to limit the spread of misinformation] could be to surface an interstitial that appears before a viewer can watch a borderline embedded or linked video, letting them know the content may contain misinformation,” Mr. Neal added.
To stop misinformation around the world, YouTube is considering creating larger teams and partnerships with local teams and experts. YouTube may also add new categories to videos on rapidly evolving emerging topics, such as natural disasters.
These measures are part of YouTube’s latest measures to balance security, suppression of disinformation, and freedom of expression—an issue that has been on everyone’s mind throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We need to be careful to balance limiting the spread of potentially harmful misinformation while allowing space for discussion of and education about sensitive and controversial topics,” Mr. Mohan said.
This post was the first in a series in which YouTube has shared on the emerging issues facing the social media platform.
YouTube is widely criticized for failing to address the spread of misinformation on its platform, and many experts are calling for greater action to curb the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation.
Translated by Ahmed N. A. Almassri
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