It’s 2023 and misinformation is still a thing. Unless YouTube has anything to say about it.
In a recent announcement post, the world’s largest video-hosting platform outlined plans for a new “immersive watch page experience” that will collate news videos from “authoritative sources” across various formats into a single, trustworthy page. That’s the idea, anyway.
The new feature will show up when you start watching a video with a purple newspaper icon on the home page or in search results. Instead of needing to look around for more videos on the topic yourself, YouTube will do it for you.
Good Guy YouTube wants to help
It’ll suggest more relevant content from live streams, podcasts, long-form videos, and Shorts below the first video you started watching. And because YouTube is committed to bringing viewers “credible, timely, and substantive news content”, the suggested videos will be from “authoritative sources”.
The post didn’t explain what constitutes an ‘authoritative source’ but it did say the range of “credible voices” will be “diverse”. In the example video that accompanied the post, coverage from PBS, The Associated Press, Sky News, and CBS Evening News is suggested.
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The platform says the feature will roll out over time on mobile to “approximately 40 countries” and that it will come to the desktop and living room platforms a little later. Hopefully, it won’t take long before the feature sees a wider release, particularly in countries facing unrest or are prone to natural disasters.
At a time when other social media platforms seem reluctant to involve themselves with reputable news content or openly voice their dislike of “legacy news” as Musk called it, the approach Google is taking through YouTube’s new news watch page is refreshing.