To combat the misinformation on YouTube, Google’s launched new tools that will help combat fake news in the upcoming elections in Europe.
While the tools are specifically for YouTube, a large part of Google’s effort with these tools are geared towards YouTube. Google will be added labels to videos in Europe that provide news sources that receive government or public funding. This is actually an expansion of the information labels debuted in the US back last February.
“Our goal here is to equip you with more information to help you better understand the sources of news content that you choose to watch on YouTube,” Google said.
Also, YouTube will highlight sources like BBC News and FranceInfo in the Top News or Breaking News shelves in more European nations. That feature is already in the EU in UK, France, Germany and other countries. However, Google will be bringing them to other nations “in the coming weeks and months.”
Battling the false news problem on YouTube
YouTube’s had an ongoing fight to control false news appearing on its trending page and other sections of the platform. Google is hoping it will be able to keep the problem at bay with the EU elections coming up.
There’s also been a specific destination launched in Google News called “2019 European elections” that links “top journalism” on election topics for the UK. Google Trends will also surface top-searched questions and candidates, support data-driven stories and surface relevant facts about the elections.
Google is also offering tools and support for fact-checking organizations and offering new verification training courses.
Will these tools make a difference?
When you look at the scope of all the YouTube fake news, it’s not clear how much these tools will help EU voters find valid information. Google has been accused of not doing enough to reveal sources of ads concerning key voter issues. Though, it does seem Google is trying to do more and that is at least something.
Image courtesy europarl.europa.eu and timesofisrael.com
