Curbing misinformation around health: YouTube Health launches two new features to provide credible sources of health videos

YouTube Health: In a bid to provide people with authoritative, credible as well as engaging information around health, YouTube Health has decided to roll out two new features, viz, health content shelves and health source information panels. Both the features would be available in Hindi as well as English. The features aim to provide context cues to people so that viewers can access videos from verified health sources in an easier manner, the Google-owned company said in a statement.

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As per YouTube, the Health Content Shelves would help in a more effective highlighting of videos from authentic sources whenever viewers were to search for specific health topics. How this would work is by presenting a new content shelf in the search results of any health-related topic like heart diseases or breast cancer, etc, where videos related to the search topic from government entities as well as accredited health organisations would surface in a highlighted and visually separate manner.

On the other hand, Health Source Information Panels mean health labels would show up under videos from authorised sources, so that viewers can identify which videos have been posted by health organisations and governments. This would help them better evaluate the information provided as they would know which was coming from credible sources.

As per YouTube, it made use of a set of principles developed by experts from NAM and WHO to identify the sources that would be included in these two features. During the pandemic, many users have taken to videos to look for details around ailments and of such platforms, YouTube is the most commonly used. Hence, YouTube has been working to ensure that any misinformation is avoided. These new features seem to have the same end, so that users can rely on credible information without having to worry about whether the information provided is from authentic sources or not.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz