News24
16 Apr 2019, 11:43 GMT+10
Soon after a fire engulfed Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on Monday, news outlets began streaming live broadcasts on YouTube. Below several of the clips was an odd box of text: A snippet from Encyclopedia Britannica about the September 11 terrorist attacks.
YouTube, a division of Alphabet's Google, introduced this text box feature last year to combat the spread of conspiracy theories, including those that question the 9/11 attacks. On Monday, YouTube's software mistakenly labeled the plumes of smoke in Paris as footage from 2001, triggering the panel below the video.
"We are deeply saddened by the ongoing fire at the Notre-Dame cathedral," said a YouTube spokesman. "These panels are triggered algorithmically and our systems sometimes make the wrong call. We are disabling these panels for live streams related to the fire."
YouTube has been battered with criticism over extreme and misleading videos, especially around breaking news topics. While the service has become the world's largest video site, it has struggled to use software and human reviewers to understand and police the millions of hours of footage that gets uploaded daily.
Last month, video of an attack on mosques in New Zealand was streamed on YouTube and other social-media services. Videos questioning important facts, such as the moon landing and the efficacy of vaccines, have also run rampant on YouTube, prompting inquiries from US lawmakers.
Last year, YouTube Chief Executive Officer Susan Wojcicki unveiled the information boxes as a solution that she hoped would help quell conspiracy theories. The text is pulled from websites including Wikipedia to counteract misleading videos with well-established facts.
The company has said it shows "tens of millions" of the text panels below videos each week.
On Twitter, conspiracy theories spread about the cathedral fire. An account impersonating CNN with the handle @CNNpolitics2020 tweeted that "CNN can now confirm the Notre Dame fire was caused by an act of terrorism." The tweet gained dozens of retweets and likes. The account is now suspended.
Another tweet said the fire was intentionally set. It was deleted, but website Infowars wrote a story based on the tweet.
French Deputy Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said it was too early to say what caused the fire, while Paris prosecutors have opened an investigation.
"We're reviewing reports and taking action in line with our rules," Twitter said in a statement.
Get a daily dose of California Telegraph news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to California Telegraph.
More InformationMADRID, Spain: Liverpool footballer Diogo Jota and his younger brother, André Silva, have died in a car accident in Spain. Spanish...
LONDON, U.K.: An unrelenting heatwave sweeping across Europe has pushed early summer temperatures to historic highs, triggering deadly...
President Donald Trump's plans to build a space-based Golden Dome missile defense shield have drawn immediate criticism from China,...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Paramount has agreed to pay US$16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by U.S. President Donald Trump over...
LONDON, U.K.: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer won a vote in Parliament this week to move ahead with changes to the country's welfare...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: President Donald Trump will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday. President...
FRANKLIN, Tennessee: Hundreds of thousands of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles are being recalled across the United States due to a potential...
REDMOND, Washington: Microsoft is the latest tech giant to announce significant job cuts, as the financial strain of building next-generation...
LONDON UK - U.S. stock markets were closed on Friday for Independence Day. Global Forex Markets Wrap Up Friday with Greeback Comeback...
SANTA CLARA, California: Nvidia came within a whisker of making financial history on July 3, briefly surpassing Apple's all-time market...
SACRAMENTO, California: California's multibillion-dollar farms are facing a growing crisis—not from drought or pests, but from a sudden...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: President Donald Trump says the United States could soon reach a trade deal with India. He believes this deal would...