YouTube Declares War On Misinformation With Community Notes Feature Similar To X

YouTube is looking to combat misinformation on its platform by allowing notes to be added to videos that will add context, similar to the feature found on the X social media platform. Some examples the company provides are, “notes that clarify when a song is meant to be a parody, point out when 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 new feature is going to be rolled out first to English speaking users in the United States that are on mobile devices. This is intended to be an initial testing phase where the company will collect feedback from viewers, creators and other participants. If all goes well the feature will then make its way to a wider set of users, although YouTube isn’t providing a timeline for this.


For this testing period a select group of contributors and creators will receive communications from YouTube about joining the group of individuals who can add these notes. Third-party evaluators will then be looking over notes added to videos and rate their helpfulness, with additional contributors being added to the pool over time.

YouTube says a note will appear beneath a video if it’s “broadly helpful,” which will be determined after asking users their opinion on a note. A bridging-based algorithm, which the company says, “identify notes that are helpful to a broad audience across perspectives,” is also part of the overall system that determines if a note is published.

There have been a multitide of complaints about the amount of misinformation on YouTube, so here’s hoping that this new feature works as intended and can deliver a better user experience.