Mumbai: YouTube will unveil notices below videos uploaded by news broadcasters that receive some level of government or public funding. The news publisher funding notice indicates how the publisher is funded, and offers a link to the publisher’s Wikipedia page. This is in a bid to offer greater transparency across the board, to its advertisers, creators and viewers.
YouTube’s goal is to equip viewers with additional information to help them further understand the sources of news content that they watch on the platform. This new feature will be rolled out to viewers in the US and YouTube welcomes feedback from users and publishers, with plans to improve and expand the feature over time.
According to a blog post on its website, the notice is not displayed in YouTube search results, and does not affect any video features or monetisation eligibility of the videos. This announcement follows a series of changes YouTube made throughout 2017, such as the launch of the “Breaking News” shelf on its home page to prominently showcase news after a major event. A “Top News” shelf was also integrated into the YouTube search results to highlight news from authoritative sources for news-related queries.
“This notice on publishers receiving public or government funding, though still in its early stages, not only carries forward our work in this area through 2017, but represents one of many more steps we will take throughout 2018 to improve how we deliver news content on YouTube,” the company said in a blog post.
