YouTube users have been noticing labels appearing below videos that are uploaded by public broadcasters on the video-sharing website. The labels state if the channel was funded by the public or the government.
It was first noticed by US-based users on Al Jazeera channel when a label that reads: “Al Jazeera is funded in whole or in part by the Qatari government” appeared below the video.
Later, users found out that it was not only applied to Al Jazeera, however, labels were seen on the BBC, Turkish TRT, Russia Today and many other channels that are believed to receive partial or full state-funding.
The video-sharing website started applying their labels strategy in the US in Feb 2018, with it later applied to the UK and Ireland. It is not clear if it was applied in the Middle East yet.
The labels mainly aim to provide more transparency about the news source, YouTube earlier acknowledged. It will help people distinguish state-propaganda outlets from other ones.
With a link to Wikipedia, labels will also provide more details about the broadcaster. However, commercial videos will not be labeled.
The video-sharing websites move came after they were criticized for the way they filter content produced by questionable sources. Therefore, they offered this service of which people will be able to filter and believe the news themselves.
Meanwhile, many criticized the new labeling strategy of YouTube.
