YouTube is testing a new Twitter-style community notes feature, which is good because YouTubers sure do love to lie

Symbolic photo: Logo of the video platform YouTube on June 07, 2023 in Berlin, Germany.
(Image credit: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images)

You know when you fire up a YouTube video and within the first two minutes the guy from the thumbnail has already said something obviously untrue? Instead of the sole recourse being pumping your fist while writing a corrective comment nobody will ever see, Google will soon let some users submit a Twitter-style "note" under those videos to provide valuable context or corrections.

Just like Twitter Community Notes, YouTube's experimental notes will be written by users, with one notable difference: During this pilot program, Google is using "third-party evaluators" to rate the helpfulness of notes and ultimately determine if they appear under a video. Contributors will eventually be able to rate notes if the feature is expanded. The company announced the feature on the YouTube blog in June, but is only now getting around to inviting people to try it out.

youtube notes

(Image credit: Google)

As you can see in the mockup above, approved notes will be prominently displayed under the title of videos in a blue box and can be expanded like a comment to read the whole thing. In an email sent to testers, Google invites them to submit notes on "videos you find inaccurate or unclear," but adds that "notes should always be in your own words, not copied text directly from sources, and they should add clarity or useful context to videos." (*cough* ChatGPT *cough*)

Sounds like a decent idea. Community Notes has proved one of the few positive changes to Twitter over the last few years, and while those notes are sometimes abused by overzealous watch dogs stretching the definition of a "fact check," they're generally successful at calling out when a widely-shared post is blatantly wrong.

I'd love to see the same thing happen for YouTube: the misinformation capital of the internet where algorithms regularly promote creators who platform conspiracy theorists and climate deniers, or brazenly mislead viewers with fictional thumbnails and titles that don't represent the content within. Of course, Google could also change its algorithm to not elevate charlatans, but that's not really part of its business plan. Better to put the burden on users and come out looking like it's fighting the misinformation it promoted.

If you're a prospective notes writer eager to make YouTube less annoying, check your inbox; you might have an invite to join the waitlist.

TOPICS
Morgan Park
Staff Writer

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.

Read more
The Facebook 'Like' emoji logo is seen in this photo illustration on 22 August, 2023 in Warsaw, Poland. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Get ready to argue with your weird Uncle on Facebook again. Meta is rolling out its new fact checking solution to it's 190 million users in the United States
The Spy from Team Fortress 2 holds up a folder with an accusatory expression.
Steam users react ecstatically to update that lets them access their heaving game notes via the web, also it fixes Monster Hunter Wilds video recording
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., during the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. Meta Platforms Inc. debuted its first pair of augmented reality glasses, devices that show a combined view of the digital and physical worlds, a key step in Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's goal of one day offering a hands-free alternative to the smartphone. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Facebook and Instagram are ditching fact-checkers in favor of a Community Notes system inspired by X: 'Fact-checkers have just been too politically biased,' Zuckerberg says
One YouTuber has been poisoning AI tools that access her videos with .ass subtitle files and you can too
A man holding a smartphone with a Youtube logo and small YouTube logos displayed on a screen are seen in L'Aquila, Italy, on October 9th, 2024. (Photo by Lorenzo Di Cola/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Youtube's CEO says it's the 'new television' with 1 billion TV viewers daily, and apparently people watch Shorts on their TV now
A man holding a smartphone with a Youtube logo and small YouTube logos displayed on a screen are seen in L'Aquila, Italy, on October 9th, 2024. (Photo by Lorenzo Di Cola/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Seeing how much I hate its ads, YouTube tries to sell me yet another subscription tier with Premium Lite rolling out in the US
Latest in Gaming Industry
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
As layoffs and studio closures continue to deathroll the western AAA industry, analyst points out 5 of 8 major Japanese companies hit all-time share prices this year
A still from a video announcement of Game Informer's return, featuring the magazine's Halo 2 issue.
Game Informer is back from the dead: 'The whole team has returned'
Typing on internet search toolbar: What am I doing?
How a Microsoft exec managed to pitch Microsoft Word through the genius tactic of being able to actually use it in a 'type-off' demanded by clients: 'I was the only one who'd actually been a secretary'
Half-Life wallpaper - Gordon Freeman
Former Valve exec says the company struggled to sell Half-Life until coming up with the ultimate 'one simple trick' of marketing manoeuvres: slapping a 'Game of the Year' sticker on the box
Gabe Newell looks into the camera, behind him is a prop of a turret from Team Fortress 2.
Gabe Newell's cult of personality is intense, but a Valve exec who worked with him says his superpower is how he 'delighted in people on the team just being really good at what they did'
The Spy from Team Fortress 2 holds up a folder with an accusatory expression.
One of Valve's original executives shares a very simple secret to its success: 'You can't use up your credibility' by trying to make bad games work
Latest in News
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'