The conflict between Israel and Hamas has been the last straw for the EU in the face of the explosion of fake news. After asking social networks for “effective mitigation measures” to combat misinformation, there is already a first response to the demands of the European authorities: YouTube has announced a new home page where “reliable” news sources will be prioritized.
As announced by the audiovisual content portal, the objective is to offer “true” and contrasted news especially in times of “elections, riots and natural disasters” to nip in the bud the misinformation and hoaxes that spread rapidly on the Internet.
However, it will not be a human editor who will decide which news is reliable or false: the content of this special page with verified sources will be “generated algorithmically and in a dynamic way,” according to Elena Hernández, YouTube spokesperson.
At the moment not all the media and agencies that will have the privilege of being part of this group of reliable sources are known, but in a small fragment where the system is previewed you can see brands such as Associated Press, Sky News, PBS News Hour, ABC News and CBS Evening News.
“We believe this updated news source will help users access a variety of credible and diverse voices when they want to delve into a topic,” said YouTube director of news and civic associations Brandon Feldman and director of product management Geoff Samek.
Right now “this feature is being rolled out over time to mobile users in approximately 40 countries” explain those responsible for the platform, which will also indicate reliable media with a pink newspaper icon.
