YouTube to give 'information panels' in search results in India to counter fake news

To counter the spread of **fake news on its platform** , YouTube India will start showing ‘information panels’ that is said to give factually correct information on search results that are ‘prone to misinformation’. [caption id=“attachment_6163081” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”] Representative Image.[/caption] As per a report by BuzzFeed News these panels, which will be provided by YouTube’s verified fact-checking partners, will not show up on individual videos but on pages of the search results. However, videos that could be spreading misinformation will still be present on YouTube. A disclaimer will be generated on videos flagged by YouTube for sensitive content. Currently, the feature has been made available to a limited number of users of the 250 million users in India, for search queries in Hindi and English. A global roll-out of the feature is expected soon, but there’s no confirmation as to when that will happen. A spokesperson for YouTube told BuzzFeed News that “As part of our ongoing efforts to build a better news experience on YouTube, we are expanding our information panels to bring fact checks from eligible publishers to YouTube,”. YouTube shared with BuzzFeed what this disclaimer would look like in Hindi and English. For the English version, the search result “Virus in paracetamol” showed a disclaimer with an article from The Quint which stated that “Hoax Alert! Paracetamol does not contain ‘Machupo’ Virus.” In the Hindi version, the search query for CCTV footage of Pulwama attack gives a disclaimer of a Syrian bombing being circulated as the Pulawama bombing. With the Indian general elections approaching it becomes necessary that fake news and misinformation is curbed on social media platforms.