YouTube to Label US Election-Related Videos and Searches With Context

tech.hindustantimes.com:

YouTube said that it will add contextual information underneath election-related videos and in search results for the US midterms in the coming weeks, an initiative aimed at curbing the spread of falsehoods on the Google-owned video platform.

YouTube will roll out information panels in two languages, English and Spanish, when users search for information about the election, Leslie Miller, YouTube's vice-president of government affairs and public policy, said Thursday in a blog post. The video site will also promote authoritative content from national and local news sources, and work to quickly remove videos that violate its community guidelines, including ones that mislead voters on how to vote, encourage interference in the democratic process, incite violence, or promote other types of election misinformation. YouTube said that it had already pulled a handful of videos that contained false claims of widespread fraud, errors and glitches in the US presidential election, though it did not specify how many.

“Over the years we've built policies, systems and teams that raise authoritative content and limit the spread of harmful misinformation,” Miller said in the blog post. “Whether it's learning about when and where to vote, or finding information about political candidates, we take seriously our commitment to connecting viewers with trusted resources.” Starting on Election Day, the company said, people will see information about election results underneath videos and in search results related to the midterms, and will be able to track results live. But YouTube did not say whether its information panels would address false election-related rumors in real-time.

Misinformation on major social media platforms has