What you need to know
- YouTube appears to be testing a feature that will add notes at the bottom of the video.
- This aims to provide sources and relevant information to viewers about the video, making it easier for them to spot fake/altered videos on the platform.
- This is being rolled out to US people who will start seeing notes on videos in the "coming weeks and months."
YouTube announced on Monday (June 17) that it is testing a feature to allow people to add notes and provide relevant and easily understandable context to their videos on the platform.
The blog post explains that YouTube could include notes that clarify when a song is a parody, or a new version of a product being reviewed is available, or let viewers know when older footage is mistakenly portrayed as a current event. This will make it easier for viewers to spot fake or altered videos/news on the platform.
This feature looks similar to Community Notes on X, which provides a disclaimer right below the tweet to inform users that the post is misleading or lacks information—providing links to additional sources on the web.
YouTube says it will invite a limited number of eligible contributors who will write notes on these videos to help them test this feature before expanding it on a larger scale.
To be eligible to participate in this test, users should have created their account six or more months ago, haven't had any community guidelines strike in the past year, and aren't supervised or have a brand/school account containing multiple users. It's important to note that these YouTube accounts need to be based in the United States and have their language set to English.
"These third-party evaluators are the same people who provide feedback on YouTube’s search results and recommendations," the blog states.
Also, these contributors will appear as "anonymous" on YouTube's notes, so they won't have to worry about being 'exposed' per se. The company says that as the pilot project expands, contributors themselves can rate notes as well.
YouTube says that Notes will appear publicly under a video if they’re helpful to a wide range of audiences.
Under a video, viewers will be given options to choose if they found the note “helpful,” “somewhat helpful,” or “unhelpful” and why. Allowing users to share their thoughts about whether the note cites the right sources or is written clearly and neutrally.
"From there, we’ll use a bridging-based algorithm to consider these ratings and determine what notes are published," the blog added.
YouTube says that people in the US will start to see notes on videos in the "coming weeks and months."
