Viewers who click on YouTube videos about climate change, climate science and global warming may now see a small pop-up at the bottom of their videos providing facts on the issue at hand, as reported by Zahra Hirji at Buzzfeed News.
Why it matters: YouTube does not make the full list of conspiracies that it wishes to mediate with third-party information publicly available, but Buzzfeed News' reporting shows that climate-related hoaxes are part of that set.
Climate hoax videos aren't the only target. Disclaimers have also been found on videos published by RT, a Russian television network funded by the Russian government.
The big picture: Many social media platforms, like YouTube and Facebook in particular, have been criticized for creating news echo-chambers for consumers.
In an effort to get around this problem, while also avoiding making editorial judgement calls to censor some of the content on their platforms, several companies are opting to give users more context around certain topics so they can broaden their perspective.
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced in March that the site would begin displaying facts from Wikipedia and other third-party sources alongside controversial or hoax videos that challenge widely accepted facts, like the moon landing, details on school shootings, and now climate change.
The system isn't perfect, and YouTube and other platforms are still working to refine the effort.
What's next? YouTube seems to have chosen to use Wikipedia's material without consulting them first, but the two are forging ahead with the experimental partnership nonetheless, according to Engadget.
Editor's note: the photo caption has been corrected to remove a reference to Stossel's statements about climate change.
