Washington, Europe Brief News – More than 80 fact-checking organisations have urged YouTube to do more to tackle disinformation.
The organisations also urged YouTube not allow its online video platform “to be weaponised by unscrupulous actors”.
Addressing YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki, the groups ranging from the Kenya-based Africa Check to Politifact and the Washington Post in the United States offered to help the platform debunk false statements.
“Every day, we see that YouTube is one of the major conduits of online disinformation and misinformation worldwide,” they said, adding that videos containing false information had gone “under the radar ” of the platform’s policies, especially in non-English speaking countries.
“We urge you to take effective action against disinformation and misinformation … and to do so with the world’s independent, non-partisan fact-checking organisations,” they added.
“Our experience as fact-checkers together with academic evidence tells us that surfacing fact-checked information is more effective than deleting content.”
The groups further called on YouTube to focus on providing context and offering debunks. They also urged it to make sure its recommendation algorithm did not actively promote disinformation to its users.
However, YouTube spokesperson Elena Hernandez defended the platform. She said that fact checking was a “crucial tool”. But just “one piece of a much larger puzzle to address the spread of misinformation”.