YouTube will soon ask audiences to add context to videos

YouTube is testing a way for viewers to add Sourced from the community Context for videos. property, They are called noteswill allow people to add bits of information to clarify things like whether the video is a parody or contains old footage presented as a current event.

If you consider the note helpful, you may see it pop up in a small box below the video. YouTube says only a “limited number” of eligible contributors can write feedback at this time, while external raters will evaluate the usefulness of the feedback. YouTube will then use these comments to train its feedback rating system over the coming weeks and months.

As the pilot progresses, YouTube will eventually begin asking viewers whether they consider the note “helpful,” “somewhat helpful,” or “not helpful” and explaining why. It will then feed these responses into its algorithm, which will determine whether the note is “broadly useful.” YouTube says its system is more likely to show a note if multiple people who previously rated notes differently rate the same note as helpful.

Bringing feedback to YouTube will introduce the feature to a wider audience, which may also increase the possibility that feedback will contain errors or irrelevant information. Other platforms, such as Twitter (now X), began testing community feedback in 2021 to provide context for posts.

Like Twitter, YouTube appears to be trying to keep misinformation out by limiting this pilot program to a limited number of users and residents to start. YouTube says any misinformation is “part of how we will learn from the experience.”