Video-sharing platform YouTube plans to target politically misleading videos, according to Leslie Miller, vice president of government affairs and public policy. The platform will remove politically misleading videos.
Such videos are technically manipulated or edited to mislead YouTube subscribers, and such videos may pose a serious risk. The video-sharing platform is trying to play its role when it comes to well-informed voting for the upcoming 2020 election.
In 2019, the company removed an altered video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This video underwent modification to make her sound intoxicated.
President Donald Trump shared one of the clips on Twitter. Moreover, videos of the same elements circulated on Facebook. However, neither Twitter nor Facebook removed those videos.
YouTube and the severity of this problem
For a long time, YouTube is trying to deal with such problems. One of the major issues is that algorithms help harassers and misleading reporters.
It is no secret that the site offers recommendations based on how long people watch a video. As a result, creators have the opportunity to main money from misleading headlines and thumbnails.
Moreover, this algorithm guides more than 70% of what people watch on the site.
In June 2019, YouTube changed its policies to prevent harassment in the platform. This way, the video-sharing platform wanted to tackle problems such as hateful supremacist ideologies.
One of the solutions is to hold creators accountable for the actions of their followers. Thus, the creator will think twice before posting a video that may cause problems. However, this suggestion is not the best option, as it contradicts with freedom of speech,
Interestingly, YouTube has a partner program to hold standards in how a user can make money. However, the rules remain vague.
Hate speech is one of the biggest issues for the video-sharing platform. YouTube made the right when it is started to remove such content. However, it will be tough to eradicate this problem for once and for all.
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