YouTube is actually creating an “Intelligence Desk,” a multifaceted detection initiative to delve out inappropriate content before it spirals into a bigger problem. YouTube is planning to seek out and police inappropriate or offensive content, which is followed by a public backlash over its repeated failure to skip the exploitative and offensive content out of its platform.
According to BuzzFeed News, the inappropriate content will be analyzed through Google data, user reports, social media trends, and even third-party consultants to remove the specific content or prevent from any advertisement messages appearing near the content. This desk will work as a further push to improve YouTube’s content moderation system.
As confirmed by a YouTube spokesperson in a statement to BuzzFeed News, “As we outlined in a blog in December, we’re expanding our work against bad actors trying to abuse our platform. This includes hiring more people working to address potentially violative content and increasing our use of machine learning technology.”
Earlier this month YouTube was highly criticized for its slow response to a video uploaded by vlogger Logan Paul which appeared to show a dead body in Japan’s suicide forest. The video ranked top 10 trending videos before it was removed from the site. The establishment of the YouTube Intelligence Desk is to remove such specific content and also heading off the advertisers before the user outrage.
This proactive moderation stance was also welcomed by, John Montgomery, Executive Vice President of brand safety at GroupM. He remarked, “This specific will hopefully help Google to anticipate any negative content trends and allow them to nip them before they become serious issues.”
This is not the first time that YouTube has come up with a technological solution, earlier it faced piracy issues which turned off advertisers. It showed up with a system to detect copyright content called ContentID. YouTube is making series of changes to win back the advertiser’s trust to its platform. On Tuesday it announced that now the creators need 4,000 hours of total watch time in the previous 12 months and 1,000 subscribers to get paid. The company is also planning to add 10,000 content moderators by this year’s end. The platform thus promises to do better.