Banning Alex Jones isn’t the only thing YouTube is doing to stem conspiracy theories on its platform. The company recently began linking to Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica articles below some videos that cover subjects that are often muddied by misinformation. The company wrote in a blog post that it would be doing this in July, and earlier this month the additional information began to appear on videos about climate change. Now YouTube appears to have broadened the program, adding information boxes to the bottom of videos that cover subject matters that tend to attract communities pushing false theories.
Banning Alex Jones isn’t the only thing YouTube is doing to stem conspiracy theories on its platform. The company recently began linking to Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica articles below some videos that cover subjects that are often muddied by misinformation. The company wrote in a blog post that it would be doing this in July, and earlier this month the additional information began to appear on videos about climate change. Now YouTube appears to have broadened the program, adding information boxes to the bottom of videos that cover subject matters that tend to attract communities pushing false theories.
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki shared the outlines of this plan at South by Southwest in March, explaining that the platform would begin drawing language from Wikipedia to contextualize videos that tend to court conspiratorial coverage and misinformation. At the time the Wikimedia Foundation, which administers Wikipedia, released a statement noting that it had not been made aware of YouTube’s plan in advance of the announcement. “We are always happy to see people, companies, and organizations recognize Wikipedia’s value as a repository of free knowledge. In this case, neither Wikipedia nor the Wikimedia Foundation are part of a formal partnership with YouTube,” the company’s statement read.
YouTube Is Adding Fact-Check Links for Videos on Topics That Inspire Conspiracy Theories | Slate