Thu 13 January 2022:
Over 80 fact-checking organizations from around the world have urged YouTube to do more to combat disinformation and prevent its online video platform from being “weaponized by unscrupulous actors.”
In an open letter to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, organizations as diverse as Africa Check in Kenya and Politifact and the Washington Post in the United States offered to assist the platform in debunking misleading claims.
“Every day, we see that YouTube is one of the major conduits of online disinformation and misinformation worldwide,” they said, adding that videos containing false information had gone “under the radar ” of the platform’s policies, especially in non-English speaking countries.
“We urge you to take effective action against disinformation and misinformation … and to do so with the world’s independent, non-partisan fact-checking organisations,” they added.
“Our experience as fact-checkers together with academic evidence tells us that surfacing fact-checked information is more effective than deleting content.”
Over 80 independent fact-checking organizations from all over the world have sent a letter to YouTube’s CEO, Susan Wojcicki, calling upon her to take four clear measures against misinformation. https://t.co/TBdpbrnNWu#YouTubeOpenLetter
— Noko Makgato (@nokolosh) January 12, 2022
The organisations requested YouTube to focus on giving context and debunking misinformation, as well as ensuring that its recommendation algorithm did not purposefully push disinformation to its users.
Elena Hernandez, a spokesman for YouTube, defended the platform, calling fact-checking a “crucial tool” but only “one piece of a much larger puzzle” in combating the spread of disinformation.
“Over the years, we’ve invested heavily in policies and products in all countries … to connect people to authoritative content, reduce the spread of borderline misinformation, and remove violative videos,” she added.
She said YouTube had seen “important progress”.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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