This archive report was first published on 4 December 2019.
As the world's largest video-sharing platform, YouTube has a significant impact on the dissemination of information. With millions of users relying on it for news and entertainment, the platform has a responsibility to ensure that the content it hosts is accurate and trustworthy.
According to a statement released by YouTube in January 2019, the platform has been working to raise authoritative voices and reduce the spread of borderline content and harmful misinformation. Since then, YouTube has launched over 30 changes to its algorithm to reduce recommendations of such content, resulting in a 70% average drop in watch time of this content in the US.
So, how will YouTube achieve this goal? The platform plans to give more priority to credible and known channels, filtering out less trustworthy ones from search results. For example, if you search for a trending topic like 'fake news', YouTube will prioritize authoritative sources over less credible ones.
YouTube has also been experimenting with alternative methods to combat misinformation, including hiding comments. The results of these tests have been positive, and the platform is confident that these changes will have a significant impact on reducing the spread of fake news.
But what does this mean for up-and-coming content creators? To get their content recognized, they will need to improve their SEO game and post valuable content with attention-grabbing titles. If they fail to do so, their work may go unnoticed, even if it's of high quality.
On the other hand, the spread of fake news has to be stopped, and we welcome YouTube's efforts to take action against it.
