San Francisco (AFP)
YouTube is stepping up its fight against disinformation with "information boards" including demythification of rumors and other questionable information ("factchecking"), while the coronavirus crisis continues to spoil conspiracy theories and false remedies on the internet.
These panels, already in place in India and Brazil since last year, will now be deployed in the United States, announced the Google video platform in a statement released on Tuesday.
The Covid-19 pandemic "has reaffirmed the importance for spectators to obtain accurate information", explains YouTube, all the more so that more and more Internet users are seeing the news on the site.
The videos of "factcheck" ("verification of the facts") will appear in the event of research on a subject which was the subject of demythifications by press organs. They must be affiliated with the "International Fact-Checking Network" (IFCN), the organization which makes reference in the matter.
YouTube already set up an information section on the health crisis in March to promote "authoritative content". Google also recently announced a $ 1 million donation to IFCN.
All the major social networks are mobilizing to stop the spread of false rumors and false advertisements, and to put forward the instructions of health organizations and governments.
© 2020 AFP