Fact-checking organizations around the world are urging YouTube to take stronger action against misinformation on its platform.
In an open letter published Wednesday by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism organization, more than 80 fact checks approached YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, citing a list of conspiracy theories and misinformation that have spread around the world in the last years. The letter said that YouTube is being used as a main point of dissemination.
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“That is why we urge you to take effective action against misinformation and disinformation, and develop a roadmap of policy interventions to improve the information ecosystem,” the letter reads.
A YouTube spokeswoman said, “Fact-checking is a crucial tool in helping viewers make their own decisions. own informed decisions, but it is one piece of a much larger puzzle to deal with the dissemination of information wrong”.
“Over the years, we have invested heavily in policies and products in every country we operate in to connect people to content, reduce the spread of misinformation borderline and remove violating videos," she added, noting that less than 1% of all views on YouTube are content that contains misinformation or violates the rules.
"We are always looking for meaningful ways to improve and will continue to strengthen our work with the fact-checking community."
YouTube has more than 2 billion monthly visitors, but it does not disclose how many total views YouTube generates in any specific time period, making it difficult to contextualize content rates problematic.
