Meaningful transparency, debunking false information, acting against repeat spreaders of misinformation, and extending efforts to languages other than English are among the solutions that a group of more than 80 fact-checking organisations from across the world, including India, proposed in an open letter to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. YouTube, the world's largest video sharing platform and second-most visited website after Google Search, has been plagued with misinformation issues for years. While the company has made efforts to tackle this problem by banning anti-vaccine content, promoting videos made by authoritative sources, and constantly expanding its misinformation and election misinformation policies, the fact-checkers say that the "current measures are proving insufficient." "As an international network of fact-checking organizations, we monitor how lies spread online — and every day, we see that YouTube is one of the major conduits of online disinformation and misinformation worldwide. [...] What we do not see is much effort by YouTube to implement policies that address the problem. On the contrary, YouTube is allowing its platform to be weaponized by unscrupulous actors to manipulate and exploit others, and to organize and fundraise themselves," the letter stated. What should YouTube do? Be transparent about moderation decisions and support independent research: The fact-checkers want YouTube to "support independent research about the origins of the different misinformation campaigns, their reach and impact, and the most effective ways to debunk false information." They also want the platform to publish its full policy regarding moderation of disinformation and misinformation including details of the use of…
