Dear Susan Wojcicki:
Nearly two years have passed since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The world has seen time and again how destructive disinformation can be for coexistence, democracy and public health; too many lives and livelihoods have been ruined, and too many people have lost loved ones because of disinformation.
As an international network of fact-checking organizations, we are dedicated to observing how lies spread online, and every day we see that YouTube is one of the world’s main channels of disinformation. This is an important and concerning issue for our global fact-checking community.
We do not see a real effort on YouTube’s part to enforce policies that address the problem. On the contrary, YouTube allows unscrupulous actors to use its platform as a weapon to manipulate and exploit others, and to organize and raise funds. The current measures are insufficient. For this reason, we urge you to take effective action against disinformation and misinformation, to develop a roadmap of interventions that improve your information ecosystem, and to do so hand in hand with independent and nonpartisan fact-checking organizations.
Over the past year we have seen denialist groups thrive and collaborate across borders, including a movement that began in Germany, jumped to Spain and spread across Latin America, all through YouTube. At the same time, millions of users had access to videos in Greek or Arabic encouraging them to join vaccine boycotts or to treat COVID-19 infections using false cures. Beyond pandemic-related false information, YouTube videos have been promoting false cancer remedies for years.
In Brazil, the platform has been used to amplify hate speech against vulnerable groups, with messages reaching tens of thousands of users. Electoral processes have not been spared either: in the Philippines, false content with more than 2 million views denying human rights violations and corruption during the years of the Marcos dictatorship has been used to improve the reputation of the son of the last dictator, one of the candidates in the 2022 elections. In Taiwan, the most recent elections were marred by unfounded allegations of fraud. The whole world also witnessed the consequences of disinformation when a violent mob stormed the United States Capitol last year. From the eve of the U.S. presidential election until the day after, YouTube videos supporting the “fraud” narrative had more than 33 million views.
The examples are too many to count. Many of those videos and channels remain active today and all slipped through YouTube’s controls, especially in non-English-speaking countries and in the Global South. We welcome that the company has taken some measures to try to address this problem, but judging by what we see daily on the platform, we believe these initiatives are not working, and YouTube has also not published quality data to support their effectiveness.
So far, the company has limited the debate on disinformation to a false dichotomy between deleting or not deleting content. In doing so, YouTube avoids the possibility of doing what actually works: our experience as fact-checkers and academic evidence show that providing context with verified information is more effective than removing content. This alternative also preserves freedom of expression while recognizing that providing that additional information can mitigate risks to life, health, safety and democratic processes. And given that a large portion of views on YouTube come from its own recommendation algorithm, the platform should also ensure that it does not actively promote disinformation or recommend content from unreliable channels to users.
Taking all this into account, we propose some solutions that would make a great difference in reducing the spread of disinformation and misinformation on YouTube.
- A serious commitment to transparency regarding disinformation on the platform. YouTube must support independent research on the origin, scope and impact of different disinformation campaigns, and on the most effective methods of combating false information. It must also fully publish its moderation policy regarding disinformation and misinformation, including the use of artificial intelligence and the data on which it is based.
- Beyond removing content that violates the law, YouTube must focus on providing context and clearly overlaid debunks on videos or as additional video content. That can only be carried out through meaningful and structured collaboration in which YouTube assumes responsibilities and systematically invests in independent fact-checking initiatives that work around the world to address these problems.
- Act against repeat disinformers who produce content that is consistently flagged as disinformation and misinformation, particularly those who monetize that content on and off the platform. Specifically, this means preventing recommendation algorithms from promoting content from those sources of disinformation.
- Expand current and future efforts against disinformation and misinformation in languages other than English, and provide country- and language-specific data, as well as transcription services that work in any language.
We hope that you will consider implementing these ideas for the public good and to make YouTube a platform that truly makes every effort to prevent disinformation and misinformation from being weaponized against users and society at large. We stand ready to provide YouTube with any assistance it may need in this task. We would like to meet with you to discuss these matters and find ways that lead to effective collaboration. We look forward to your response to this proposal.
Africa Check (Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa) / Animal Político - El Sabueso (Mexico) / Aos Fatos (Brazil) / Bolivia Verifica (Bolivia) / BOOM (India, Myanmar and Bangladesh) / Check Your Fact (U.S.) / Code for Africa - PesaCheck (Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe) / Colombiacheck (Colombia) / CORRECTIV (Germany) / Cotejo.info (Venezuela) / Chequeado (Argentina) / Delfi Lithuania (Lithuania) / Demagog Association (Poland) / Doğruluk Payı (Turkey) / Dubawa (Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and The Gambia) / Ecuador Chequea (Ecuador) / Ellinika Hoaxes (Greece) / Fact Crescendo (India) / Fact-Check Ghana / FactCheck.org (U.S.) / FactSpace West Africa / Facta (Italy) / FactcheckNI (United Kingdom) / Factly (India) / Factual.ro (Romania) / FactWatch (Bangladesh) / Fakenews.pl (Poland) / Faktist.no (Norway) / Faktograf.hr (Croatia) / Faktoje (Albania) / Fast Check CL (Chile) / Fatabyyano (Middle East and North Africa) / Full Fact (United Kingdom) / GRASS - FactCheck Georgia / India Today Group (India) / Istinomer (Serbia) / Istinomjer (Bosnia-Herzegovina) / Hibrid.info (Kosovo) / Knack Magazine (Belgium) / La Silla Vacía (Colombia) / Lead Stories (U.S.) / Les Surligneurs (France) / Logically (United Kingdom) / Lupa (Brazil) / Maldita.es (Spain) / MediaWise (U.S.) / Mongolian Fact-checking Center (Mongolia) / MyGoPen (Taiwan) / Myth Detector (Georgia) / NewsMobile (India) / Newschecker (India and South Asia) / Newtral (Spain) / Observador - Fact Check (Portugal) / Open Fact-checking (Italy) / OŠTRO (Slovenia) / Pagella Politica (Italy) / Poligrafo (Portugal) / PolitiFact (U.S.) / Pravda (Poland) / Raskrinkavanje (Bosnia-Herzegovina) / Re:Check/Re:Baltica (Latvia) / RMIT ABC Fact Check (Australia) / Rumor Scanner (Bangladesh) / Science Feedback (France) / StopFake (Ukraine) / Stopfals.md (Moldova) / Taiwan FactCheck Center (Taiwan) / Tempo (Indonesia) / Teyit (Turkey) / The Healthy Indian Project/THIP Media (India) / The Journal FactCheck (Ireland) / The Logical Indian (India) / The Quint (India) / The Washington Post Fact-checker (U.S.) / The Whistle (Israel) / Univision - elDetector (U.S.) / VERA Files (Philippines) / Verificat (Spain) / Vishvas News (India) / Vistinomer (North Macedonia) / VoxCheck (Ukraine) / Youturn.in (India) / 15min (Lithuania)