YouTube notifies US viewers if news organizations receive government support

YouTube is introducing a new feature in the US that will notify viewers if videos are from news organizations that receive government support. The company plans to make more changes to news videos during this year.

YouTube announces that news videos will have a comment between the video and the title of the video. That happens if the news organization in question “receives any amount of public support or government funding.” For example, viewers should be able to better understand the source of the news, because they have more information at their disposal. The comment below the video includes a link to Wikipedia, where viewers can find information about the broadcaster.

In an explanation of the notification shown, YouTube writes that it will not be shown in the search results and that the notification ‘does not contain any comment on the part of YouTube about the editorial choices made or the influence of a government on the editorial staff’. The company says it will make further changes to the way it presents news on its platform over the course of the year, but does not provide details. The initiative is said to be still in its infancy, and the company does not say if or when expansion outside the US will take place.

Google’s video platform has also announced other changes aimed at creators or creators, as in its own words. It wants to focus on enabling more interaction with viewers. However, it is also working on new policies that will allow it to respond if “a creator does something unheard of that harms the entire community.” With that, YouTube seems to be referring to an incident such as with the popular vlogger Logan Paul, after which it put together a team to detect unwanted content more quickly.