ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Technews devider How Google and YouTube continue to fight misinformation in the country

How Google and YouTube continue to fight misinformation in the country

Published Apr 28, 2023 07:49 am

According to Google Trends, the Philippines is the top country in the world searching for terms “fake news” and “misinformation” in 2023. The country is also part of the top ten in the world searching for “disinformation” and “fact-checking” as topics. This means that more Filipinos are getting curious and would like to understand more about these important issues. “Access to trusted information and content is so important. Our goal is to empower media, creators, and fact-checkers around the world with the tools, opportunities, and capacity to help people online make informed opinions,” said Mervin Wenke, Head of Communications and Public Affairs at Google Philippines. As part of its ongoing commitment to drive news and media literacy in the Philippines, here’s some of the various tools and ways Google and YouTube are helping fight misinformation: ●       

Google Search “About This Result” feature

 - Now available in Filipino, this shows people more information about a particular entry on the results page simply by clicking the three dots beside a result’s URL. The information pane shows additional context for that entry to help people understand where the information is coming from and see how Google’s systems determined it would be helpful for their query. ●       [

Breaking News

](https://www.youtube.com/howyoutubeworks/product-features/news-information/#overview) 

on YouTube

 - When a major breaking news event happens, this shelf appears on YouTube’s homepage to ensure that viewers have easy and immediate access to authoritative news sources. ●       [

Information Panels

](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9004474?hl=en)\- When people search or watch videos on YouTube related to topics prone to misinformation\, such as the moon landing or “the Earth is flat”\, they will see an information panel linked to third\-party sources at the top of their search results or under a video you're watching ●       [

Community Guidelines

](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9288567) 

-

 The rules of the road for how to behave on YouTube. These policies apply to all types of content on the platform, including unlisted and private content, comments, [links](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9054257), Community posts, and thumbnails. Creators receive a strike for every Community Guideline violation and three (3) strikes within 90 days means permanent removal from YouTube. ●       

Fact-checking Training

 - Google consistently holds capacity-building workshops around the world to help media assess information online. Over the past several years, Google has trained more than 177,500 journalists in 17 countries across Asia Pacific, including the Philippines. ●       

Fact-checking Grants -

 Google and YouTube provide grants to organizations to help strengthen fact-checking efforts. Google and YouTube announced in November 2022 a 

$13.2M grant

 to the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the Poynter Institute to launch a new [Global Fact-Check Fund](https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/grants-ifcn/globalfactcheckfund/). This is Google and YouTube’s 

single largest grant in fact-checking.

The Fund is open to applications from IFCN’s network of 135 fact-checking organizations from 65 countries, including the Philippines, covering over 80 languages. Applications are now open until May 15, 2023, for grants from the Fund’s first phase, called BUILD. Interested applicants may submit their application [here](https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/grants-ifcn/globalfactcheckfund/#build-opportunities). On top of efforts to support and enable fact-checking, Google is also committed to helping media and creators succeed on platforms like Shorts so that quality content and journalism thrive even on new popular formats. "We believe the media and creators do play an important role in ensuring that more Filipinos online can connect to trusted information even on new formats like short videos," said Wenke.
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.