For the past several years, YouTube has been trying to grapple with “fake news” on its platform. One tool the site has leveraged to address misinformation is a context card that links to Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Britannica, and other third-party sources. However, that information panel failed in a high-profile manner today as the Notre Dame Cathedral burns in Paris.
Over the weekend, Google presented a white paper at the Munich Security Conference detailing how it fights disinformation across its largest services. This includes efforts covering Google Search, News, and YouTube, as well as advertising platforms.
Last year, Google Search had to address “fake news” appearing in “Featured Snippets” on the web and being offered as answers via Assistant and Google Home. The company today is announcing a handful of features to combat the same issues on YouTube.
Google has long had to tackle the attempts of those trying to “game” search with low-quality content, with “fake news” being the modern-day extension of that. Today, the company is announcing “structural changes” to Search that address the “spread of blatantly misleading, low quality, offensive or downright false information.”