YouTube wants to fight disinformation with changes to news offerings

YouTube has announced a number of changes to its news offerings aimed at curbing the spread of disinformation on the platform. For example, the company is starting to supplement videos with texts and with links to news articles about recent events.

YouTube reports that it is starting to show links to Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica, among others, a measure previously announced by the company. That happens with a small number of videos on topics “about which there is a lot of misinformation,” according to YouTube. It previously gave examples of topics such as the moon landing and chemtrails. In addition, the company wants to put more emphasis on ‘authoritative news sources’. This means that YouTube will initially show links to news articles in videos about major current events in the US.

In addition, according to Wired, which relies on YouTube product officer Neal Mohan, YouTube is making changes to its recommendation algorithm. When it comes to breaking news, the platform uses a different variant than usual, where users receive recommendations based on their personal history of watched videos. Wired writes that YouTube wants to break this ‘downward spiral’.

Furthermore, YouTube says it is starting to show more local news in the US and is expanding its Top News and Breaking News sections to more countries. It doesn’t say which ones they are. Finally, the Google subsidiary is investing $25 million, including to support news publishers and help news organizations produce videos.