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Authoritative news and information

News and information

There are times when you come to YouTube to catch up on the latest news or to simply learn more about topics that you're curious about. For content where accuracy and authoritativeness are key, including news, politics, medical and scientific information, we use machine-learning systems that prioritise information from authoritative sources and provide context to help you make informed decisions.

Raising authoritative voices

There are a lot of signals – such as relevance and popularity – that typically matter when our systems determine what videos to show when you're searching for content. However, when it comes to news and information, we know that authoritativeness is key. That's why we're committed to helping these users discover authoritative sources when it comes to news and information across our platform.

Breaking news

When a major breaking news event happens in your country, we want to make sure that you are aware and can easily access authoritative information. In those cases, the Breaking News shelf appears directly on your homepage. It features relevant videos from authoritative news sources about news events of national importance.

*Feature availability varies by country and we are working to expand to more countries.

Breaking news

Breaking news shelf on the homepage during major breaking news events

How does YouTube determine what breaking news is?

You may see Breaking News videos on the homepage for events such as large-scale tragedies, natural disasters and momentous occurrences in national and international politics. In order to highlight breaking news relevant in your country, we rely on Google News to understand what is happening in the world and when a news story is breaking.

Top news

When you proactively search for news-related topics, you will often see a Top News section near the top of search results, which raises relevant results from authoritative voices including news sources like CNN and Fox News. A Top News shelf may also be shown on your homepage if you watch or search for news content. The Top News shelf will appear regardless of age, and will include relevant content from news sources that follow Google News content policies.

*Feature availability varies by country and we are working to expand to more countries.

Top news

Top news shelf: Raises relevant results from authoritative voices in search results

Elevating authoritative sources

We raise authoritative voices for newsworthy events in search results and 'Up next' panels. In addition to current events, authoritativeness is also important when it comes to topics prone to misinformation, such as vaccines. In these cases, we aim to surface videos from experts, like public health institutions, in search results.

*Feature availability varies by country and we are working to expand to more countries.

Authoritative voices for newsworthy events get prioritised in search results and 'Up next' panels

Providing context to help you make informed decisions

Context is critical when evaluating information, so we give you context alongside certain search results and videos to help you make your own decisions about the content that you find on YouTube. To do this, we highlight text-based information about certain events, topics and publishers from third-party sources using information panels across YouTube.

Developing news

In developing news situations, when high-quality video may not be immediately available, we display links to text-based news articles from authoritative sources in YouTube search results. We will also provide a reminder that developing news can rapidly change. We rely on Google News signals to surface this.

*Feature availability varies by country and we are working to expand to more countries.

Developing news

Developing news information panels link to news articles alongside search results during developing news

Fact checks

Our fact-check information panels provide additional context by highlighting relevant, third-party fact-checked articles above search results for relevant queries, so that you can make your own informed decision about claims made in the news.

There are many factors that determine whether a fact-check information panel will appear for any given search. Most importantly, there must be a relevant fact-check article available from an eligible publisher. And in order to match your needs with the information that we provide, fact checks will be shown when you search for a specific claim. For example, if you search for 'did a tornado hit Los Angeles', you might see a relevant fact-check article, but if you search for a more general query like 'tornado', you may not.

Our fact-check information panels rely on an open network of third-party publishers and leverage the ClaimReview tagging system. All publishers are welcome to participate, providing they follow the publicly available ClaimReview structured data guidelines, and are either part of the International Fact-Checking Network or are an authoritative publisher.

*Feature availability varies by country and we are working to expand to more countries.

Fact checks

Fact checks: Recently fact-checked claims are shown alongside search results

Topics prone to misinformation

For well-established historical and scientific topics that are often subject to misinformation, such as 'Apollo 11', general reference articles linking to third-party sources appear alongside related search results and videos to provide more context. We do this by surfacing contextual information from third-party sources, including Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia, alongside videos and search results. We have started with a small group of topics based on third-party sources as we test and roll out this feature.

Topics prone to misinformation

Topical information panels feature general reference articles alongside search results on topics prone to misinformation

Publisher funding

Since knowledge around funding sources can provide context when assessing an organisation's background and help you become a more informed viewer, we disclose government or public funding for news publishers via information panels alongside their videos. We provide information panels on publisher funding on more than a thousand channels.

*Feature availability varies by country and we are working to expand to more countries.

Publisher funding

Publisher funding information panels show government or public funding for news publishers

Health

When you search on YouTube for health-related topics such as COVID-19, you may see information panels on YouTube that show health information from authoritative sources, such as the World Health Organization and other health ministries. These information panels include independent third-party information about topics such as symptoms, treatment and prevention. You can also go to the third party's website to learn more. In some countries or regions, you may notice links to clinically confirmed self-assessments from local health authorities. Based on your self-assessment answers, you'll get more information on what kind of support or medical care might be appropriate for you.

*Feature availability varies by country and we are working to expand to more countries.

*Health-related information on YouTube doesn't apply to everyone and isn't medical advice. If you have a medical concern, make sure that you get in touch with a healthcare provider. If you think that you may have a medical emergency, get in touch with your doctor or call your local emergency number.

Health

Health information panels show detailed health information from authoritative sources, such as health ministries