After initial releases in Brazil and India last year, YouTube will begin to show fact check information panels in the United States. The panels will appear at the top of search results for current topics with questionable veracity such as supposed medicines against the novel coronavirus.

The new panels use information from ClaimReview, a tagging project from Duke University's Reporters' Lab that draws upon fact-checking resources at many news services including FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, and AFP. It then distributes brief modules across willing hosts including Google Search and WordPress-based news sites. Panels will only appear in results where ClaimReview can supply an article related to that specific topic — a panel won't appear on a search of the term "covid," but one will top the listings for "covid and ibuprofen."

ClaimReview formats its fact checks to contain all of the following:

  • The name of the publisher doing the fact check
  • The claim being fact checked
  • A snippet of the publisher’s fact check finding
  • A link to the publisher’s article to learn more
  • Info about the publication date of the fact check article

These fact check panels are an extension of YouTube's existing general information panels that appear in searches for certain topics.

If you, as a lot of people do, consume news through YouTube in the U.S., you can expect to see these panels appear quicker over time as new rumors develop. You can also send feedback about them with this link.

Source: YouTube (1), (2)