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YouTube's chief product officer on fighting misinformation during a pandemic

"Our focus right now is making sure that YouTube is doing its part to help people deal with this challenge."

Neal Mohan and Protocol's David Pierce

"We've removed on the order of thousands of videos since the beginning of this crisis," YouTube CPO Neal Mohan said.

Screenshot from the Virtual Meetup

YouTube has served up around 14 billion text-based information panels with links to the CDC and WHO in recent weeks in an effort to get reliable coronavirus information to its users, YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan said during Protocol's Virtual Meetup on Thursday.

"Our goal is to raise up authoritative voices," Mohan said.

In addition to these outbound links, YouTube has also been aiming to put a bigger emphasis on surfacing videos from health officials on its service. "When we recommend videos, we want to make sure that they're coming from authoritative sources," Mohan said, explaining that it had been working with doctors and medical professionals to fine-tune these recommendations.

At the same time, YouTube has been trying to squash misinformation. The service has established an internal intelligence desk to identify misinformation threats, and is now issuing two to three internal updates a week on the types of content it is banning to account for emerging conspiracy theories, like the false claim that 5G caused COVID-19. "We've removed on the order of thousands of videos since the beginning of this crisis," Mohan said.

Even YouTube's original content efforts are all about COVID-19 these days. Asked whether YouTube was looking to fund any high-profile entertainment projects anytime soon, Mohan demurred, saying that the video service was instead focusing on getting YouTubers in touch with health professionals like Dr. Anthony Fauci. "Our focus right now is making sure that YouTube is doing its part to help people deal with this challenge," he said.

Part of this has also been educational content. YouTube has also seen a lot of kids and their parents flock to the service for such content; Mohan said that home-schooling-related searches have doubled since the beginning of March.

At the same time, YouTube has seen a lot of traction for entertaining live streams during these times, including a recent Andrea Bocelli live concert. "We all are looking for means to connect, for inspiration, for hope," Mohan said.

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 Janko Roettgers

Janko Roettgers (@jank0) is a senior reporter at Protocol, reporting on the shifting power dynamics between tech, media, and entertainment, including the impact of new technologies. Previously, Janko was Variety's first-ever technology writer in San Francisco, where he covered big tech and emerging technologies. He has reported for Gigaom, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Zeitung, and ORF, among others. He has written three books on consumer cord-cutting and online music and co-edited an anthology on internet subcultures. He lives with his family in Oakland.

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Does Elon Musk make Tesla tech?

Between the massive valuation and the self-driving software, Tesla isn't hard to sell as a tech company. But does that mean that, in 10 years, every car will be tech?

You know what's not tech and is a car company? Volkswagen.

Image: Tesla/Protocol

From disagreements about what "Autopilot" should mean and SolarCity lawsuits to space colonization and Boring Company tunnels, extremely online Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his company stay firmly in the news, giving us all plenty of opportunities to consider whether the company that made electric cars cool counts as tech.

The massive valuation definitely screams tech, as does the company's investment in self-driving software and battery development. But at the end of the day, this might not be enough to convince skeptics that Tesla is anything other than a car company that uses tech. It also raises questions about the role that timeliness plays in calling something tech. In a potential future where EVs are the norm and many run on Tesla's own software — which is well within the realm of possibility — will Tesla lose its claim to a tech pedigree?

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Becca Evans
Becca Evans is a copy editor and producer at Protocol. Previously she edited Carrie Ann Conversations, a wellness and lifestyle publication founded by Carrie Ann Inaba. She's also written for STYLECASTER. Becca lives in Los Angeles.
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Apple isn’t the only tech company spooked by the delta variant

Spooked by rising cases of COVID-19, many tech companies delay their office reopening.

Apple and at least two other Silicon Valley companies have decided to delay their reopenings in response to rising COVID-19 case counts.

Photo: Luis Alvarez via Getty

Apple grabbed headlines this week when it told employees it would delay its office reopening until October or later. But the iPhone maker wasn't alone: At least two other Silicon Valley companies decided to delay their reopenings last week in response to rising COVID-19 case counts.

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Half of working parents have felt discriminated against during COVID

A new survey found that working parents at the VP level are more likely to say they've faced discrimination at work than their lower-level counterparts.

A new survey looks at discrimination faced by working parents during the pandemic.

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The toll COVID-19 has taken on working parents — particularly working moms — is, by now, well-documented. The impact for parents in low-wage jobs has been particularly devastating.

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Alphabet launched a new division Friday called Intrinsic, which will focus on building software for industrial robots, per a blog post. The move plunges the tech giant deeper into a sector that's in the midst of a major wave of digitization.

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Joe Williams

Joe Williams is a senior reporter at Protocol covering enterprise software, including industry giants like Salesforce, Microsoft, IBM and Oracle. He previously covered emerging technology for Business Insider. Joe can be reached at JWilliams@Protocol.com. To share information confidentially, he can also be contacted on a non-work device via Signal (+1-309-265-6120) or JPW53189@protonmail.com.

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