THE Chief Executive Officer of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki, has restated the commitment of the video-streaming site to curbing misinformation and promoting free speech on its platform.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Wojcicki said that misinformation remains a challenge for the video-streaming company.
She added that it is difficult for YouTube to moderate content during global crises while speaking on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the US abortion saga, among others.
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Commenting on reports criticising some of the contents featured on the platform, she said, “There will always be incentives for people to be creating misinformation. The challenge will be to keep staying ahead of that and making sure that we are understanding what they are.”
She said with the policies aimed at reducing the spread of misinformation, the company’s latest research revealed that YouTube was missing only about 10 to 12 content-violating videos per 100,000 views of videos on the platform.
Wojcicki further noted that the company can always improve its work to combat misinformation.
“Running a company that has really focused on free speech, we want to make sure that we’re enabling a broad set of opinions that everyone has a right to express their point of view, provided they meet our community guidelines,” she said while reiterating the platform’s commitment to free speech.
As a means to disallow content that promoted the denial or trivialization of the Russia-Ukraine war, the video site had, earlier this year, blocked channels connected to Russian state-backed outlets across Europe.
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“The average citizen in Russia can access, for free, the same information that you can access here from Davos,” Wojcicki said.
She noted that YouTube will continue to operate in Russia to provide independent news.
