YouTube to use people to vet more content

YOUTUBE is to tackle hate speech by having humans rather than computers vet its most popular videos.

The Google-owned video platform says moderators will “manually review” the top 5% of online posts.

Only suitable videos will be allowed to make money from advertising placed alongside them. Those failing the test would be denied the ad revenue, restricted or even removed.

Any offensive videos amid the remaining 95% of YouTube content will stay online unless reported by users, picked up by artificial intelligence or spotted by a network of “trusted flaggers”. The shake-up follows pressure to stop extremists from making money on YouTube.

Companies had also started a boycott after finding their advertisements next to vile videos.

It will still be possible for extremists and other “bad actors” to cash in. However, YouTube has taken another step to restrict unsuitable niche videos.

It said it would now allow adverts to appear only if a contributor had at least 1 000 followers and had had 4 000 hours of their content watched by others over the past year. The change has angered smaller “creators”, who will struggle to make money. However, it will also stop big brands from funnelling money to extremists who set up new channels to avoid detection.

Previously, Google used a computer algorithm to place adverts next to content without knowing what that content was or how much traction it had. Those who post the videos receive a cut of the advertising revenues enjoyed by the technology giant. – Daily Mail