YouTube is considering limiting the reach of edge videos. By preventing them from being shared and integrated on third-party sites?
Since it is very easy to upload videos to YouTube, a lot of misinformation content is hosted on the platform. YouTube has a set of rules to prevent videos with the most extreme ideas from being uploaded to its servers, but some that border on breaking those rules remain in place because they don’t actually break them. How to enter these?
YouTube Considers Limiting the Reach of Edge Videos
YouTube has tried to make these videos less visible by hiding them among others and removing them from recommendations, but the fact that users can still embed and share them on third-party sites and services doesn’t help. So much so that the American giant recently published a post on its blog discussing the possibility of preventing such videos from being shared by preventing them from being embedded on third-party sites or sharing a link from another site.
However, YouTube acknowledges that such an initiative may be too cruel: “But we are trying to determine whether the ban on sharing will not go too far in restricting user freedoms. Our systems reduce the visibility of borderline content in recommendations, but providing a link is an active human decision that is different from a passive action such as watching a recommended video.”
By preventing them from being shared and integrated on third-party sites?
The American giant also acknowledges that such videos could be useful for research or news articles. In fact, she also says, “We need to be careful to limit the spread of any potentially damaging disinformation, leaving room for discussion and learning on sensitive and controversial topics.”
Nothing has been decided yet, but it’s clear that misinformation is a problem right now, and these huge platforms need to support it. From there to prevent sharing links to borderline content? Hard to say.