E.s is not unclever, with which more than eighty “fact check organizations” from over forty countries approach the Youtube boss Susan Wojcicki today. At six o’clock sharp they send her an open letter in which they demand that YouTube do more to combat “disinformation and misinformation” on the Internet.
What should Youtube do? According to the “fact checkers”, the group should deal transparently with disinformation and measures to combat it. Instead of simply deleting videos, Youtube should create “context”. The Google subsidiary should take action against “repeat offenders” and prevent their contributions from being recommended by algorithms. And finally, the whole thing should be extended to languages other than English and provided with “language-specific data and effective transcription services”.
Who is meant?
The “fact checkers” from all over the world, to which the editorial group “Correctiv” belongs in Germany, also know who is particularly useful in this context: they themselves. to implement the demands cited here and “to make YouTube a platform that really does its best to prevent disinformation and misinformation from being used against its users and society as a whole”. At a meeting with Susan Wojcicki they plan to “discuss the problem raised”.
That sounds very honorable, is certainly helpful, but also just as bold. Because here the application for an agency contract is declared as a service to the common good and nothing else. This and the control of the omnipotent corporations that rule in the digital and analogue world must first and foremost be taken care of by democratically legitimized legislators and law enforcers. First they ensure – unfortunately still very inadequate – for compliance with standards and the necessary transparency, which YouTube and others in Germany are forced to achieve under the Network Enforcement Act, for example. If a private company gets private help from “fact checkers” to counter “disinformation”, it can only be an auxiliary service. And that too has to be transparent.
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