Digital Services Act
Youtube: EU law can hinder the fight against fake news
Youtube fears that the EU’s Digital Services Act could even hinder the fight against misinformation online. Photo: Monika Skolimowska/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
With the Digital Services Act, the EU wants to better protect consumers against disinformation and hate postings. But the current proposals could cause exactly the opposite, criticizes Youtube.
According to YouTube, the planned European law on digital services (DSA) can hinder the fight against hate speech and misinformation.
As it stands, the Digital Services Act could require YouTube to “perform a systematic and detailed assessment” before launching any product or service, Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan said on presentation of the quarterly Transparency Report youtube.
The planned specifications are intended to give consumers better protection online against disinformation, hate speech and counterfeit products. In addition, it should be regulated how digital giants, including Google and Facebook, should deal with illegal content or hate speech. The following should apply: the larger the platform, the stricter the rules.
Youtube fears that any adjustments to its algorithms to curb harmful content will fall under the provision of the DSA, which is currently being negotiated between the EU Commission, the European Parliament and EU states. But when a new misinformation threat emerges, action must be taken quickly, Mohan said.
As an example, he cited the fight against misinformation about the corona pandemic. This topic has led to a sharp increase in misinformation over the past two years. “We were one of the first platforms to adopt a Covid-19 medical misinformation policy, and we’ve updated it 10 times in 2020 alone to protect viewers from harmful content.”
In the fourth quarter of 2021, YouTube removed more than 58,000 videos worldwide for violating the Covid 19 guidelines. Globally, YouTube deleted over 3.7 million videos between October and December 2021 for violating the service’s Community Guidelines. In Germany, over 48,000 videos were removed, significantly more than in France (almost 32,000), Spain (almost 22,000) and the Netherlands (almost 20,000). 92 percent of these videos worldwide were first discovered by machines and not tagged by humans.
Mohan stated that Youtube supports the overall goals of the DSA. “We are certain that slower response times when addressing misinformation is not what everyone involved in these negotiations wants. But there is a real risk if this particular proposal stands.”