IN 2017, YouTube began raising authoritative news sources on its platform, said Emily Moxley, vice president for product management at YouTube. These include Top News and Breaking News. There are also panels providing Topical Content.
From February 2021 to January 2022, YouTube removed over 400,000 videos uploaded from the Philippines for Community Guidelines. YouTube elections misinformation policies prohibit content that misleads voters about the time, place, means, or the eligibility requirements for voting, or false claims that could materially discourage voting; propagates false claims related to the technical eligibility requirements for current political candidates and sitting elected government officials to serve in office; encourages others to interfere with democratic processes; and contains hacked information, the disclosure of which may interfere with democratic processes
With the Philippine national elections fast approaching, YouTube and Google announced product features, partnerships and programs to provide information and help protect the integrity of the ballot. These include Election Information Panels on YouTube.
The candidate information panel provides a relevant candidate information panel on top of the search results when YouTube users search for the names of candidates for President and Vice President. The panels highlight factual information on the candidates, such as their political party and what office they’re running for. Information about candidates and parties is sourced from vetted, non-partisan, third-party sources such as Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica.
There’s a how-to-vote information panel to help people learn more about the voting process. These panels will lead users to the Commissions on Elections’ (Comelec) web site.
“Political news and events can be subject to misinformation, so the availability of authoritative information sources is crucial. Over the last few years, we’ve made deep investments to make YouTube a more reliable source for news, while also maintaining the openness of the platform. Our work is ongoing and we are committed to making YouTube a vibrant and safe community for a healthy political discourse as well as help protect the integrity of elections,” said Moxley.
The Google News Initiative supports Meedan’s #FactsFirstPH, a coalition of more than 100 groups, including news organizations such as Rappler, civil society organizations, business groups, faith-based communities, research groups and legal organizations to fight misinformation ahead of the Philippine elections. The GNI has also teamed up with the University of the Philippines (UP) to launch a journalist training series and provided support to Tsek.ph, a collaborative fact-checking project led by UP.
Google has also been invested in and supports local media literacy programs to teach people how to identify trusted information. These include the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication’s “A Day in the Life” video series and training for news literacy, and CANVAS’ #YOUTHink magazine. Google.org also made a grant of $1.5 million to help the Asean Foundation expand media literacy education in Asean member communities, including the Philippines. The Asean Foundation has also developed a digital literacy comic book available in Filipino.
“Fighting misinformation is important to Google and it takes the whole of society working together to address it. We will continue to forge meaningful partnerships with the media and community groups to help people access the right information so they can make an informed vote in the upcoming elections,” said Irene Jay Liu, Google APAC News lab lead.
“Part of Comelec’s mission is to empower voters with accurate, relevant and timely information. We laud Google for taking the important steps in helping Filipinos access authoritative information that is essential for an informed electorate,” said James Jimenez, Comelec director for education and information.