YouTube To Link Wikipedia Pages On “Conspiracy Theory” Videos

YouTube will connect conspiracy theory videos to Wikipedia links to better educate viewers, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said last week at the South by Southwest (SXSW) gathering on Tuesday in Austin, Texas.

“On the off chance that there is a critical news occasion, we need to convey the correct data, we are not a news association.”

This is expected to roll out in the months ahead according to her even though Wikipedia came out to say they were not consulted by YouTube on the proposed use of links on conspiracy theory videos.

Talking about conspiracy theory videos, it all depends on what is termed a “conspiracy theory” which is why she also said that these links will also come up on subjects that have generated a significant debate on YouTube.

The choice to use Wikipedia stems from the fact that they have sources and additional references to articles which can further shed some more light on the subject of debate. This all comes as tech giants are now faced with public reaction on fake news which they say is now shaping the world in many ways.

A YouTube spokesperson told BuzzFeed News though that the Wikipedia solution should not be seen as end in itself. They call the links “information cues” and according to them, it “is not meant to be seen as a full-scale solution to a complex problem. Instead, the company suggested that this is just a first small step in a series of announcements to come over the next year about the company’s efforts to provide more information about videos on its platform.”

Wikipedia was visited 15,000,000,000 times a day by users each month in 2017 according to Wikimedia and this translates to 6,000 time a second, every second of the day.

See below the Wikimedia reaction to YouTube’s plan to use its links as a reference on much debated videos;