In an effort to protect US users from disinformation during the coronavirus pandemic, YouTube adds informative panels containing information from its network of fact checkers for the searches. “When users search YouTube for a specific claim, we want to provide the ability to have those fact checks appear at that time, when our users are looking for information – especially around fast-moving, fast-changing topics such as COVID -19,” The Verge Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief product officer.
“But fact-checking will of course apply more widely now that it is launched here in the US,” he added. When a user searches for topics, a panel appears at the top where fact checkers have published relevant articles on the topic. The feature was introduced in Brazil and India last year.
There are already more than a dozen US publishers participating in the YouTube network of fact checkers, the video streaming platform said. Some of them are FactCheck.org, PolitiFact and The Washington Post Fact Checker. The network is also open to any publisher who is a member of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) and signs its principles. (ANI)
