People and governments see the spread of misinformation and Disinformation on social media platforms as a global threat.
According to a 2023 joint study conducted by the market research company Ipsos and the United Nations National, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 68% of internet users said social media is where Disinformation is most prevalent. In that same study, 85% of global internet users expressed concern about Disinformation’s influence on their fellow citizens, and 87% were concerned about the impact that Disinformation can have on upcoming elections in their country.
With magic eraser technology, where a user can manipulate a photo in seconds on their cell phone held in the palm of their hands and AI software creating fake images with a simple test request, this danger will not go away any time soon. The threat is only getting worse.
So, what can be done to stop this coming information apocalypse? I went to 2 of the world’s largest and most susceptible social media platforms, YouTube and X (formally known as Twitter) ( how much longer do we have to keep doing this?), to see what efforts they are taking to curb the spread of misinformation and Disinformation online.
According to Wikipedia, YouTube is an online American video-sharing and social media platform owned by Google. Launched in 2005, the platform has a global reach of 2.5 billion monthly users.
The site is mainly populated with content created by users covering various subjects, including music videos, documentaries, live streams, vlogs and news. Content posted on the site is presented to the user audience base through algorithms. Content creators can earn money from the site by receiving payment from clicks, views, ads, and counted subscribers
The site has been at the center of several controversial conspiracy theories such as flat earth theories, 9/11 truther-isms and Holocaust denial.
To combat the spread of misinformation on their platform, YouTube and help users understand how to spot troubling posts have developed a set of policies and procedures centered around what they call the “4 R’s”.
Removing violative misinformation
Reducing the spread of borderline content
Raising high-quality information
Rewarding trusted creators and artists
They claim to focus on “speedy” removal of flagged content using a combination of human content reviewers and AI.
YouTube’s misinformation policy also Putting users in control by allowing any viewer to “flag” a post they find troubling.
YouTube also looks to empower users to take the fight against misinformation into their own hands by educating them on the importance of Media literacy.
Finally to help stop the spread of misinformation YouTube offers a user checklist to go over before each post.
Don’t post YouTube content if it fits the descriptions below.
- Suppression of census participation: Content aiming to mislead census participants about the time, place, means, or eligibility requirements of the census or false claims that could materially discourage census participation.
- Manipulated content: Content that has been technically manipulated or doctored in a way that misleads users (usually beyond clips taken out of context) and may pose a severe risk of egregious harm.
- Misattributed content: Content that may pose a severe risk of egregious harm by falsely claiming that old footage from a past event is from a current event.
For users that violate the policy they could find that their channel will be shutdown if they get three strikes within 90 days.
The second primary social media platform misinformation policy I looked at is for X (formlery known as Twitter).
According to Wikipedia, the site started in 2006 under Twitter and was purchased in October 2022 by Tesla owner Elon Musk for around $44 billion. The site has over 500 million users and is the world’s 5th most prominent social media site. Users can share 140-character text messages, photos and videos on the site in posts called “Tweets.”
Posts (or tweets) are publicly visible, but senders can restrict message delivery to only their followers. Users can mute users they do not wish to interact with, block accounts from viewing their posts, and remove accounts from their followers list.
Like other platforms, X uses algorithms”—introduced by Twitter to personalized user feeds by displaying Tweets and Retweets from accounts the user had not directly followed—but that the algorithm had “deemed relevant” to the user’s past preferences.
The platform has been at the center of multiple controversies over the years and, under Musk’s ownership, has been criticized for enabling the increased spread of Disinformation, on the platform.
Musk has allowed users banned on other platforms such as Alex Jones and Donald Trump to maintain open accounts and contiune to post.
X combats misinformation on its platfrom with their Synthetic and Manipulated Media Policy.
Created in April 2023, the policy states that users may not share “synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm. This applies to all posts, including images, videos, audio, gifs, and URLs hosting relevant content.”
The policy goes on to explain what misleading media is
- Include media that is significantly and deceptively altered, manipulated, or fabricated, or
- Include media that is shared in a deceptive manner or with false context and
- Include media likely to result in widespread confusion on public issues, impact public safety, or cause serious harm.
The policy asks usesrs to police ourselves and,simular to YouTube, asks users to questions themselves they before post content:
- Is the content significantly and deceptively altered, manipulated, or fabricated?
- Is the content shared in a deceptive manner or with false context?
- Is the content likely to result in widespread confusion on public issues, impact public safety, or cause serious harm?
- Is the content significantly and deceptively altered, manipulated, or fabricated?
- Is the content shared in a deceptive manner or with false context?
- Is the content likely to result in widespread confusion on public issues, impact public safety, or cause serious harm?
Unlike YouTube X lays out what is not a violation of this policy such as Mems or satire, animations,opinions,and counterspeech.
Finally, the policy explains what happens when a user violates the policy with punshments ranging from post deletion,labeling as misinformation, and account locking.
Evaluating the merits of YouTube and X policies on misinformation:
In my opinion, YouTube and X’s policies are in line with industry standards. Meta’s policy is similar, focusing on rapid identification, removal or labeling of the content.
If a user continues to violate policies, they are suspended and eventually banned from the platform.
All the social media platforms put some responsibility on the users to validate their contact information.
I like that YouTube goes one step further by posting educational content on media literacy for users to learn from.
X directly lays out what questions a user needs to ask themselves before posting content and explains the punishments for failing, which aligns with Meta.
And now the big question: is any of this going to work?
In my opinion, any social media misinformation policy is doomed to fail. These companies let anonymous people from around the globe post content. No matter what rules are presented, people will find a way around it.
It is also in these companies’ best financial interest to have as many users as possible; content is king to reach that goal.
The reward system of paying users for clicks and users is a significant cause for online marketing posts. People want attention, and emotional marketing misinformation gets people clicking.
I would change the pay system to a follower-only donation system or build a more robust algorithm that checks every post before it hits the site for misinformation.
I agree with YouTube that the best weapon against misinformation is education. The media literacy program they offer should be mandatory for users signing up for an account. Governing citizenship is not the answer. Significant tech self-regulation is not the answer. User education is the only way to stop the spread.
