YouTube brings new features to offer credible health information

Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has been the go-to repository of visual data on almost everything from tutorials on setting up a new phone, maintaining garden plants, music videos, to understanding global politics. But, with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is increased interest in seeking health-related information.

However, everything we see on social media platforms and even on YouTube is not always accurate. Due to misinformation, there has been hesitancy among people to get vaccinated to curb the spread of Coronavirus. There is so much such fake news related to other health issues and there is a need to control them.

Now, YouTube has come up with two features-- health source information panels and health content shelves, which will offer credible data sourced from government agencies and trustworthy medical journals.

Health source information panels will offer context to help viewers identify videos from authoritative sources. These health labels are placed under videos from accredited health organizations and government entities so that viewers can better evaluate the source of information and distinguish credible health content on YouTube.

And, the health content shelves, as the name says will highlight videos from reliable sources when viewers search for specific health topics.

For instance, if the user is looking for particular topics such as heart diseases, Type-1 or Type 2 diabetes, or cancer among others, the content shelf in search will show videos related to the relevant to that request from accredited health organizations and government entities.

"Recognizing the need for access to credible information that addressed widespread misinformation around the pandemic and vaccine hesitancy, YouTube created a destination for users to find reliable content in 8+ Indian languages from authoritative sources featuring content from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, leading hospitals and popular creators. Since February 2020, YouTube’s information panels and efforts to help users find authoritative COVID-19 information across YouTube’s homepage have been shown more than 250 billion times in India," YouTube said.

Here's one such authentic health-related video on YouTube:

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