YOUTUBE has been accused of allowing its platform to be “weaponized” leading to viewers being “manipulated and exploited”.
Over 80 fact-checking organizations from around the world have made these claims in an open letter to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.
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The letter states: “YouTube is allowing its platform to be weaponized by unscrupulous actors to manipulate and exploit others, and to organize and fundraise themselves.
“We urge you to take effective action against disinformation and misinformation, and to elaborate a roadmap of policy and product interventions to improve the information ecosystem — and to do so with the world’s independent, non-partisan fact-checking organizations.”
The group also made a number of recommendations on how YouTube could approve its approach to misinformation.
Things like providing more context to videos or not allowing misinformation spreaders to make money from their content were suggested.
YouTube claims to work with hundreds of publishers to direct users to fact checked information from authorities.
For example, when a YouTube user in the US searches for “Covid-19”, they’ll see a link to information from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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YouTube also pushes what it considers to be authoritative news sources to the top of the videos presented.
The platform also bans creators and deletes certain videos if they are deemed as harmful or misleading.
Conspiracy theorist David Icke had his YouTube channel deleted in 2020 after being accused of spreading misinformation about Covid-19.
The open letter acknowledged that YouTube is trying to combat some misinformation but said it’s falling short of doing so.
The letter asked for YouTube to work with fact-checking organizations and “publish its full moderation policy regarding disinformation and misinformation, including the use of artificial intelligence and which data powers it.”
US organizations that signed the letter include FactCheck.org and The Washington Post Fact-checker.
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