Over 80 fact-checking organisations have come together to list four simple ways YouTube could combat the rampant spread of misinformation on their platform, if it felt so inclined.
In an open letter to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, The International Fact-Checking Network’s called out YouTube as “one of the major conduits of online disinformation and misinformation worldwide,” and proposed it partner with them to implement policies for combating misinformation.
“YouTube is allowing its platform to be weaponized by unscrupulous actors to manipulate and exploit others, and to organize and fundraise themselves,” the letter stated. Signed by dozens of fact-checking organisations from across the globe, U.S. signatories include FactCheck.org, MediaWise, PolitiFact, and The Washington Post Fact Checker.
“Your company platform has so far framed discussions about disinformation as a false dichotomy of deleting or not deleting content,” the letter continued. “By doing this, YouTube is avoiding the possibility of doing what has been proven to work: our experience as fact-checkers together with academic evidence tells us that surfacing fact-checked information is more effective than deleting content [original emphasis].”
While COVID-19 misinformation is the most immediately obvious issue, The International Fact-Checking Network noted YouTube has hosted medical misinformation such as false cancer cures for years. Political misinformation and hate speech are also significant concerns, with the letter claiming their damaging impact has been seen in multiple countries including Germany, Brazil, Taiwan, and, of course, the U.S.
“The examples are too many to count,” The International Fact-Checking Network wrote. “We are glad that the company has made some moves to try to address this problem lately, but based on what we see daily on the platform, we think these efforts are not working — nor has YouTube produced any quality data to prove their effectiveness.”
Last September, YouTube announced an update to its medical misinformation policy that would ban dangerous anti-vaccination content.
YouTube declined to comment on whether it would be taking up The International Fact-Checking Network’s invitation to collaborate, but said in a statement to Mashable that it considers the situation to have “more nuance” than simply requiring more fact checking.
“Fact checking is a crucial tool to help viewers make their own informed decisions, but it’s one piece of a much larger puzzle to address the spread of misinformation,” YouTube spokesperson Elena Hernandez said in a statement to Mashable.
SEE ALSO: YouTube bans all anti-vaccine misinformation, removes ‘Disinformation Dozen’ channels
Hoping to staunch the tide of misinformation, The International Fact-Checking Network’s letter offered YouTube four simple suggestions on how it could stop facilitating the spread of misinformation. These are:
Commit to “meaningful transparency” on misinformation by supporting independent research, and publishing its full misinformation moderation policy — including the data powering its moderation algorithm.
Investing in independent fact-checking, while prominently debunking misinformation and providing context either superimposed on misleading videos or as extra video content.
Prevent YouTube’s algorithm from recommending videos by creators whose content is repeatedly flagged as disinformation (particularly where they monetise their content).
Expand its efforts to combat misinformation in languages other than English, and provide country-specific data. The International Fact-Checking Network noted that misinformation on YouTube flew under the radar particularly in non-English speaking countries.
YouTube told Mashable it currently works with international publishers to add third-party context in information panels under some videos in some countries, and is looking to expand this further. The company also noted it already has policies against COVID-19 misinformation that “poses a serious risk of egregious harm,” hate speech, harassment, and election misinformation, and claims its systems “raise authoritative content and reduce recommendations of borderline misinformation in all countries [in which they] operate.” The Google News Initiative (Google owns YouTube) gave the International Fact-Checking Network $1 million “to bolster fact checking and verification efforts across the world,” Hernandez said.
Of course, The International Fact-Checking Network’s point is that YouTube’s current policies historically haven’t appeared terribly effective, and that more needs to be done. It also probably shouldn’t be recommending “borderline misinformation” at all.
“Over the years, we’ve invested heavily in policies and products in all countries we operate to connect people to authoritative content, reduce the spread of borderline misinformation, and remove violative videos,” said Hernandez. “We’ve seen important progress, with keeping consumption of recommended borderline misinformation significantly below 1% of all views on YouTube, and only about 0.11% of all views are of violative content that we later remove. We’re always looking for meaningful ways to improve and will continue to strengthen our work with the fact checking community.”
However, these seemingly small percentages add up to a lot when you consider that YouTube has over 2 billion monthly logged-in users.
“And every day, people watch over a billion hours of video and generate billions of views,” YouTube boasts.
That means videos with misinformation get tens of millions of views every day, no matter how YouTube tries to spin it.
译文：
80多个事实核查组织已经联合起来列出了YouTube可以通过四种简单的方式来打击其平台上的虚假信息的猖獗传播，如果YouTube觉得有这种倾向的话。
在致YouTube首席执行官苏珊·沃西基（Susan Wojcicki）的一封***中，国际事实核查网络（International Fact Checking Network）将YouTube称为“全球在线虚假信息和错误信息的主要渠道之一”，并提议与他们合作，实施打击错误信息的政策。
信中说：“YouTube允许其平台被肆无忌惮的演员武装起来，操纵和利用他人，并组织和筹集资金。”。由全球数十家事实核查组织签署的美国签署方包括FactCheck。org、MediaWise、PolitiFact和《华盛顿邮报》事实核查员。
“到目前为止，你们公司的平台已经将有关虚假信息的讨论定性为删除或不删除内容的错误二分法，”信中接着说。“通过这样做，YouTube避免了做已被证明有效的事情的可能性：我们作为事实核查员的经验以及学术证据告诉我们，呈现事实核查信息比删除内容（原始重点）更有效。”
虽然COVID-19误传是最显而易见的问题，但国际事实检查网指出YouTube已经托管了医疗假信息，比如多年的假癌症治疗。政治错误信息和仇恨言论也是令人担忧的问题，这封信声称它们的破坏性影响已经在多个国家出现，包括德国、巴西、台湾，当然还有美国。
“例子太多了，数不清，”国际事实核查网络写道。“我们很高兴该公司最近采取了一些措施来解决这个问题，但根据我们每天在平台上看到的情况，我们认为这些努力没有奏效——YouTube也没有提供任何高质量的数据来证明它们的有效性。”
去年9月，YouTube宣布更新其医疗错误信息政策，禁止危险的反疫苗内容。
YouTube拒绝就是否会接受国际事实核查网络的合作邀请发表评论，但在一份对Mashable的声明中表示，它认为情况“更微妙”，而不仅仅是需要更多的事实核查。
YouTube发言人埃琳娜·埃尔南德斯（Elena Hernandez）在给Mashable的一份声明中说：“事实核查是帮助观众做出明智决定的关键工具，但它是解决错误信息传播的一个更大难题的一部分。”。
另见：YouTube禁止所有反疫苗错误信息，删除“虚假信息”频道
为了阻止错误信息的泛滥，国际事实核查网络在信中向YouTube提供了四条简单的建议，说明如何停止助长错误信息的传播。这些是：
通过支持独立研究，并公布其完整的错误信息控制政策，包括支持其控制算法的数据，致力于对错误信息进行“有意义的透明度”。
投资于独立的事实核查，同时显著揭穿错误信息，并提供叠加在误导视频上或作为额外视频内容的背景。
防止YouTube的算法推荐内容反复被标记为虚假信息的创作者的视频（尤其是在他们将内容货币化的情况下）。
加大打击英语以外语言错误信息的力度，并提供针对具体国家的数据。国际事实核查网络指出，YouTube上的错误信息在雷达下传播，尤其是在非英语国家。
厦门商城系统开发 在开始亚马逊业务时，许多卖家没有意识到亚马逊 – 在某些时候 – 将要求您购买亚马逊卖家保险。虽然这种必要性似乎令人生畏，但获得电子商务保险并不像通常认为的那样复杂或昂贵。 在本文中，我们将介绍您需要了解的有关亚马逊卖家保险的所有信息，包括您…
码刀科技（www.lekshop.cn）是国内知名企业级电商平台提供商，为企业级商家提供最佳的电商平台搭建（多种模式电商平台搭建：B2B/B2B2C/B2C/O2O/新零售/跨境等）、平台管理系统开发及互联网采购解决方案服务, 联系客服了解更多.
