YouTube tests new “crowdsourced” fact-checking feature on videos

YouTube videos get the Community Notes treatment.

The platform will experiment with community-driven fact-checking feature, announced June 17 and designed to provide “relevant, timely and easy-to-understand” context to YouTube videos – a relevant endeavor as misinformation (and misinformation) proliferates online.

“This could include notes clarifying when a song is intended to be a parody, indicating when a new version of a product being evaluated is available, or informing viewers when older footage is mistakenly presented as an event news,” YouTube explained in a blog post.

The first versions of the ratings will be created by users deemed “in good standing” by YouTube, then evaluated by third-party evaluators on their usefulness. This feedback, the platform explains, will help train an internal bridging-based algorithm that will filter ratings in the future.

Viewers will also be asked to give their opinion on the usefulness scale, with justification. “For example, if it cites high-quality sources or is written in a clear and neutral manner.”

X’s own Community Notes feature offered an example of how (primarily, how not) to address a community-led fact-checking system. While CEO Elon Musk has alternated between strengthening and waging war against the feature, a Mashable investigation found that few of the platform’s users actually see approved community notes discussing misinformation. “Often, misinformation about When a post receives a community rating and sticks with the post, Binder writes, “the lie in the post is often seen about 5 to 10 times more than the fact check.”

Talk to Poynter Regarding the effectiveness of Community Notes in combatting misinformation, Twitter’s former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth said there were “some areas where it was successful,” but also said that he saw “many other areas where this was not a strong solution to mitigate harm.” MediaWise director Alex Mahadevan reportedly called the user rating system “essentially a failure.” It’s often an entire site vessel for memes.

Yet YouTube is attempting to create a similar real-time feature, among other efforts to create a more transparent platform. The company has already rolled out a variety of topic-specific information panels and now requires creators to disclose the use of generative AI when applied to edits of real people, real events, or scenes “realistic” in appearance.

The Notes driver will only be available in English and to some Creator Studio users in the United States during initial testing. According to the platform: “We anticipate that there will be errors – notes that don’t match the video very well, or potentially incorrect information – and this is part of how we will learn from the experience .”