A coalition of 80 fact checker groups, including Full Fact from the UK and Fact Checker from the Washington Post, have named YouTube as the world's leading disinformation channel. According to representatives of the coalition, the platform is making insufficient efforts to combat the spread of fakes on the site, writes the Guardian.

In an open letter from fact checkers to the executive director of the platform, Susan Wojitski, it is said that YouTube is actively distributing content that contains misinformation, including about the coronavirus infection COVID-19 and fraud during the US presidential election. Organizations believe that video hosting allows attackers to use their power to manipulate information, as well as self-organize and collect money. Fact checkers argue that YouTube's current anti-fake measures are insufficient.

The coalition invited the service to make several changes to its work. For example, fact checkers believe that YouTube needs to fund independent research into the spread of fakes on the platform. In addition, they propose to oblige the site to post links to the refutation of fake information inside the videos, adjust the algorithms so that they do not encourage disseminators of disinformation, and also make more efforts to combat fakes in non-English-language videos.

Fact checkers point out that the biggest problems with misinformation on YouTube are in the southern countries - Latin America, Asia and Africa. So, signers of the open letter from India, Nigeria, the Philippines and Colombia give examples of fakes on YouTube about the former President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos, whose son is running for the presidency. In addition, they claim that the site has launched an extensive campaign to incite hatred against vulnerable groups in Brazil.

A YouTube spokesperson in a comment to the Guardian responded to the coalition's open letter, saying the video hosting company is investing heavily in curbing the distribution of content that verges on disinformation. She noted that the platform is working to ensure that users receive reliable content. According to a YouTube spokesman, the service has achieved significant success, as the consumption of content bordering on disinformation is well below 1% of all views on the site, and only 0.21% is explicit disinformation, which moderators subsequently remove from the platform.

In December 2020, Roskomnadzor named YouTube a leader in the distribution of fakes in the Russian segment of the Internet. Then the department said that most of the fakes were associated with the topic of coronavirus.

bbabo.Net