Billions of men and women around the world watch YouTube videos on a daily basis. However, a vast majority of these people rely more on Google when it comes to searching for accurate and authentic information. In fact, YouTube has a bad reputation in terms of reliability. This is because of this platform’s penchant for engagement instead of quality. More and more videos spreading canards and false information are harming the reputation of this platform these days. It is high time YouTube support takes note of this shortcoming.
False information video led to hospitalization of many people
One example that has given rise to this debate of YouTube spreading false information is a video called Miracle Mineral Solution. Creator of this video is a healer who refers to himself as a space bishop. In the video, he introduces a chemical tonic that can cure many types of ailments including toothache, infections, and believe it or not, even autism. It turns out that this so called miracle solution is nothing but bleach that can be poisonous if one swallows it accidentally. Any educated person can be shocked to see such a video on a platform like YouTube. But this healer is brazenly selling his miracle solution and he is also getting popular with passage of time which is indicated by the number of his subscriber count.
Even though YouTube has rules in place to screen such videos spreading false information, it took concerted effort on the part of socially conscious individuals to convince the company and get this video removed from the platform. Worst part of this video spreading false information is that many parents of kids suffering from autism made them drink the bleach that made them sick and they had to be hospitalized.
YouTube takes action only after being informed
This isolated example of video spreading false information is enough to highlight the gravity of the problem. The impression that people around the world are getting is that YouTube is doing nothing to prevent such videos from appearing on its platform. There are many reasons why YouTube is not screening videos being up loaded by creators. It does not wish to resort to censorship but what it does not realize is that there are people who can take advantage of its policy of no action. Yes, YouTube has rules that prohibit content that can be dangerous for the people but the company does not seem to be strictly enforcing its own rules.
YouTube online support claims that it does not have an active policy to flag videos. But it does act to remove videos from its platform whenever there is complaint in this regard from the people. This policy of YouTube is termed by most people s too little, too late. They say that lives of innocent people are endangered by quacks and those who wish to make quick money by producing videos to sell some products. It seems that the time has come for YouTube to stop relying on machines and AI to screen videos that can cause potential harm to the common people.