Viable measures needed to minimize side effects of YouTube
YouTube is seen as the biggest online platform through which misinformation and fake news is spread in South Korea, according to a survey on how news is being consumed.
The Digital News Report 2020, released by the U.K.-based Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism last week, found that 31 percent of online news consumers surveyed here were most concerned about YouTube being used to spread false information. It was followed by Facebook (10 percent), KakaoTalk and other messaging apps (7 percent) and Twitter (4 percent).
These findings contrast with what is shown through the survey covering 40 countries. Across all countries, 29 percent say they are most concerned about Facebook, followed by messaging apps (14 percent), search engines such as Google (10 percent) and YouTube (6 percent).
Given that YouTube has been called the “hotbed of fake news” for a long time, it is no surprise that Koreans see YouTube as the biggest source of concern about misinformation and fake news. The findings mean a lot because it shows a good number of online news consumers are aware that false information is being spread massively through YouTube. This has prompted the government to heed the possible side effects of YouTube and to try to come up with viable measures.
The Moon Jae-in administration has pledged to uproot what it perceives as fake news that could undermine its major policy initiatives, especially setting its sights on YouTube content creators. This may be necessary, considering public concern about false information.
But given the difficulty in defining fake news, the government should know that excessive state intervention could give rise to controversy over censorship. What is needed first therefore is for the government to let people learn how to filter out misinformation and fake news through “media literacy” education.
If necessary, the government needs to join hands with qualified traditional media organizations armed with the knowhow to operate educational programs.