YouTube, in their fight against terrorist video content, has announced it has rolled out a new search feature based on the Redirect Method that was designed by Jigsaw, the Google tech incubtor.
In the announcement, YouTube will display a playlist of videos that is aimed at debunking “violent extremist recruiting” content when people search for certain keywords.
The announcement didn’t include any specific information on what the “certain keywords” are, but Jigsaw’s site covering its Redirect Method project listed the following statement explaining how it worked with Moonshot CVE (an initiative that uses data to counter violent extremism messaging) to determine relevant keywords:
For the English campaign, Moonshot CVE created 30 ad campaigns comprising 95 unique ads and over 1,000 keywords. The keyword generation was focused on terms suggesting positive sentiment towards ISIS.
YouTube’s goal is to offer more resources and content that may be able to “change the minds” of people at risk of being radicalized by terrorist organizations and directs them to video content that debunks extremist propaganda.
During the last several months, YouTube struggled keeping terrorist content from plaguing the site and showing up in connection with advertiser content, which ultimately weakened relationships with brands. More can be read about the latest steps that have been taken to manage brand safety for advertisers on Marketing Land: YouTube quietly pauses search ads to implement brand safety measures.
Over the course of weeks, YouTube will expand the functionality to include a wider set of search queries in muliple languages, and use machine learning to update query terms. There are even plans to expand the Redirect Method tech in Europe.