YouTube to fight fake news with links to real news and context

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YouTube, like its parent company Google and others, has been chided for its platform being used to spread misinformation. In addition to tackling hate speech and inappropriate content of all kinds, the company is now also trying to fight fake news across its platform. In an official blog post, YouTube outlined a few new features coming to its website and app that it hopes will give users more context about big and breaking new stories.

The feature that users will be able to see today comes in the form of info cards atop YouTube search results. These cards will display information from third parties, including Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica, about certain historical and scientific topics that have been subject to misinformation and conspiracy theories-think events like the Moon landing or the Oklahoma City bombing.

It's likely that most conspiracy theory videos like these don't violate YouTube's community guidelines or terms of service, so the company cannot take them down. YouTube's hope is that providing more information about such topics will prevent users from getting wrapped up in videos that deliberately present false information.

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