Last month, YouTube announced that they’re copying a feature from X/Twitter, in which users will be invited to write “Community Notes” to add context and some pretense of community moderation to videos on the platform. [1]

That might seem like a fine idea, but the X/Twitter example should serve as a warning: watered-down content moderation that depends on users isn’t sufficient or appropriate, especially in an election year.

If YouTube pulls away from their core responsibility as a platform to moderate content on their channels – and this announcement is definitely a step in that direction – we could very likely see their existing problem of extremist and white-supremacist content continue to grow unchecked.

Sign our petition to YouTube today and tell them to drop their plans for community notes, and instead invest in robust paid fact-checking and content moderation.

Multiple independent sources have already documented YouTube’s problem with “rabbit holes” of extremist and white supremacist videos. [2] Content moderation to restrict the spread of this harmful and dangerous material is YouTube’s responsibility—not something to be foisted on users who could easily game the system to perpetuate disinformation.

The company’s announcement about community notes [3] does not say whether this system is designed to supplement or replace their current content moderation systems that clearly aren’t even as resourced as they should be. Like the self-checkout kiosks in all the grocery stores these days, it’s a fair bet that YouTube (and parent company Google) are increasingly looking to minimize their staff costs for content moderation teams, and have unpaid users pick up that slack for them. And their initial testing of community notes is so far taking place only in the U.S.

This is a dangerous and unacceptable development, especially in an election year when disinformation operations are already in full swing. Click here to sign our petition and tell YouTube: Drop your plans for community notes.

Thank you for speaking out today,