YouTube said it has removed more than a million videos containing “dangerous disinformation about the coronavirus” since the start of the pandemic, when social networks are accused of contributing to the spread of misleading ideas about the Covid. 19 and vaccines.
Google’s video platform has defended its content moderation techniques, emphasizing the priority given to legitimate and reliable sources, such as the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Between 0.16% and 0.18% of views concern content that violates our rules”
“We remove nearly 10 million videos per quarter [qui enfreignent nos règles], the majority of which do not even reach the ten views, ”said Neal Mohan, product director of the site, in a statement released Wednesday. But “if we only look at what we remove, we miss the mountains of content that people really see,” he insists. “In all, between 0.16% and 0.18% of views concern content that violates our rules.” According to him, now “when people search for news or information, they get the best results in terms of quality, not sensationalism”.
The very popular entertainment and information service gave details of its strategy, similar to those put forward by Facebook and Twitter, two networks regularly in the crosshairs of the authorities on these subjects.
Platforms ‘kill’ people by letting fake news flow, says Biden
The issue of disinformation around Covid-19 and vaccines has grown to such proportions that in July, US President Joe Biden even estimated that Facebook and other platforms were “killing” people by letting false information circulate about vaccination against Covid. He reconsidered his remarks to specify that false information disseminated by users could “harm those who listen to them” and “kill people”.
The bosses of Facebook, Twitter and Google have been summoned several times to answer questions from American parliamentarians, in particular on the subject of moderation of content.