Over the past couple of years, pretty much every platform on the internet has been facing problems with the spread of fake news. Since people are able to basically say whatever they want and appear like they are speaking from a place of authority and expertise, many individuals are easily swayed by rhetoric that is based pretty much entirely on falsehood and this is having a severe negative impact on the manner in which certain groups perceive reality. Not only is this dangerous from a practical perspective, it can cause concerning shifts in personal beliefs as well and is known to have a legitimate impact on the democratic process and so also has the tendency to have a widespread political impact as well.
YouTube is introducing a new feature in India that is supposedly going to make it easier to figure out whether a piece of news that you are receiving is fake or not. Basically, if you are searching for a topic that tends to have a lot of misinformation surrounding it, you are going to see a panel full of common sense facts that are provided by YouTube and Google verified experts and publishers around the topic.
For example, if you search for anti vaccination content you will see a card on top of your search results that will debunk a common claim that vaccines cause autism. The videos containing this misinformation are still present on the platform and are easily accessible, but YouTube is clearly hoping that giving people this information will make it more likely that they will take fake news with a grain of salt. While not a permanent fix for what is truly a serious problem, this can certainly be a step in the right direction.
Read Next: Is YouTube the culprit behind the spread of false news such as Flat-Earth?
YouTube is introducing a new feature in India that is supposedly going to make it easier to figure out whether a piece of news that you are receiving is fake or not. Basically, if you are searching for a topic that tends to have a lot of misinformation surrounding it, you are going to see a panel full of common sense facts that are provided by YouTube and Google verified experts and publishers around the topic.
For example, if you search for anti vaccination content you will see a card on top of your search results that will debunk a common claim that vaccines cause autism. The videos containing this misinformation are still present on the platform and are easily accessible, but YouTube is clearly hoping that giving people this information will make it more likely that they will take fake news with a grain of salt. While not a permanent fix for what is truly a serious problem, this can certainly be a step in the right direction.
Read Next: Is YouTube the culprit behind the spread of false news such as Flat-Earth?
