YouTube vs Instagram misinformation guidelines

YouTube

HOW IT WORKS: YouTube is interesting because it is content driven. People learn what SEO settings are best, what words will cause clicks in the thumbnails, anything to get a person to view a video. That being said YouTube is one of the more cautious sites when it comes to the content being produced. While the main source of reporting misinformation is views in the video, YouTube will also monitor creators outside of the app. This is to ensure that the image they are presenting and monetizing on YouTube is the same on other platforms and doesn’t violate guidelines. 

EFFECTIVE: In my personal experience with social media, YouTube is the best at curbing misinformation. The platform is unique in all aspects from paying creators to monitoring the content. YouTube will take down videos, ban creators or even give warnings on videos if they violate guidelines- including misinformation. Growing up I remember cancel culture was huge on YouTube, while the videos I was watching were drama based not necessarily misinformation based, the same ideas applied. Violating YouTube guidelines, the income that would have been earned from the video goes away.

With that being said, misinformation still gets spread on YouTube, it is just disguised as gossip or alleged claims. YouTube is only effective if people report or their monitors catch it. That doesn’t always happen, especially since algorithms give people what they want. Someone against vaccines is more likely to see videos supporting their viewpoint than those against it. 

RECOMMENDATIONS: Most of the battle is in the algorithms. Out of the billions of videos posted, very few go viral. The problem is in curating content for what people want. I would suggest creating a balanced feed. Where if a person is more likely to click on a vaccines video, to show them one or two anti-vaccine videos as suggested. While they may not click on the video, it at least shows another perspective. Continuing to monitor content, take down report videos when necessary and monitor creators on other platforms all help to curb misinformation.

Instagram

HOW IT WORKS: Instagram will mark a post as possible false information, but won’t take it down. The app said it has a third party to check information, which is how posts get flagged. In addition they have resources available to help decipher information. Similar to YouTube, the content deemed more correct and void of false information is promoted over pages or posts that may have misinformation. 

EFFECTIVENESS: While the app has more regulations with misinformation and makes it more known, it is not as effective as other apps. If a post has already gone viral and is misinformation, the theory of false trust is already at play. Posts are marked as possible misinformation, it is at the bottom of a picture and is easily skipped to the skimming eye.

It is important to keep putting these warnings on posts. This allows people to take a second to stop and think about the information being consumed. Which is more than most apps do. Though many will ignore the warning, it does help few stop and seek better reporting to find the correct information and form their own opinion based on research.

RECOMMENDATIONS: While Instagram is constantly evolving with its guidelines. Most recently they are prohibiting children under 16 from going Live without guardian permission. This is a great step in protecting children from social media as well as encouraging people to take a break from the online world. Misinformation is inevitable with anyone having the ability to post, continuing to flag possible false claims or taking down wrong information are great ways to curb the spread of misinformation. An additional step further can be taking down the post or tagging the misinformation post with information that disproves the claim. This can ultimately show people how to search for correct information. Instagram has more control of its content, but chooses to be more lenient in what can and can’t be posted. Taking one step further and just showing how people can be cautious is needed to curb misinformation.

CONCLUSION: Overall the internet is the modern wild west. We are learning day by day what should and shouldn’t be available at our fingertips. The rapid growth and freedom of social media has allowed for misinformation to spread like wildfire. Using guidelines helps, I only highlighted platforms that are known for flagging content a little bit more regularly. Snapchat and other platforms are more lenient and tend to be more popular because of it. Teaching people how to spot and handle information at a moment’s notice will be most effective in curbing misinformation.