YouTube offers “community feedback” against fake news

YouTube is currently testing the use of notes within videos. It’s about users being able to provide more context and information to videos. These notes should be Fake news Trying to prevent as much as possible in the period leading up to the US presidential elections. X, Twitter’s predecessor, also uses such a system.

In the news: YouTube is currently testing a feature called “Feedback” on a limited scale. That reports TechCrunch. The functionality is similar to the well-known Community Feedback from X. Users have been able to add comments to posts there for some time.

• In the first phase, the Notes app will only be available in the US on mobile devices set to English.
• Initially, only a limited number of users will be able to add notes. These are experienced users with a good reputation.
• YouTube acknowledges that incorrect feedback will likely appear during this testing phase. It therefore encourages all users to provide feedback.

Notes

What are notes for? According to Alphabet/Google, YouTube’s parent company, these notes have different functions.

• Feedback can be used to indicate that a song is satirical.
• It can also be used to indicate that footage is older than the video suggests. For example, old photos are sometimes incorrectly displayed on YouTube as a current event.

How do notes work? During the current pilot project, feedback is taken care of and evaluated by a limited group specially selected for this purpose, and will later become something for the entire community.

• Users will then be able to scroll notes within the videos.
• Other users can then indicate whether they were “helpful,” “somewhat helpful,” or “not helpful.” They must also indicate why they believe this.
• The algorithm then evaluates all of these notes and comments on them to determine which notes will actually be posted within the videos. If multiple people rate a comment as “helpful,” it will be visible to everyone.

US presidential elections

It’s no coincidence that YouTube will introduce the Notes app in 2024. Research after the 2020 US presidential election showed that misinformation was a big problem. Fake news reports and incorrect information would have influenced many voters at the time. With the rise of artificial intelligence, this is expected to be a bigger issue in the run-up to the US presidential election in November this year.