YouTube promises 10,000 workers to tackle disturbing content

Alphabet Inc's YouTube said onMonday it plans to add more people next year to identifyinappropriate content as the company responds to criticism overextremist, violent and disturbing videos and comments.

YouTube has developed automated software to identify videoslinked to extremism and now is aiming to do the same with clipsthat portray hate speech or are unsuitable for children.

Uploaders whose videos are flagged by the software may beineligible for generating ad revenue.

• 'De-monetizing' YouTube: What does it mean you will see?

But amid stepped up enforcement, the company has receivedcomplaints from video uploaders that the software iserror-prone.

Adding to the thousands of existing content reviewers willgive YouTube more data to supply and possibly improve itsmachine learning software.

The goal is to bring the total number of people acrossGoogle working to address content that might violate itspolicies to over 10,000 in 2018, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki saidin one of a pair of blog posts Monday.

"We need an approach that does a better job determiningwhich channels and videos should be eligible for advertising,"
she said. "We've heard loud and clear from creators that we haveto be more accurate when it comes to reviewing content, so wedon't demonetize videos by mistake."

Comments targeted

In addition, Wojcicki said the company would take"aggressive action on comments, launching new comment moderationtools and in some cases shutting down comments altogether."

The moves come as advertisers, regulators and advocacygroups express ongoing concern over whether YouTube's policingof its service is sufficient.

YouTube is reviewing its advertising offerings as part ofresponse and it teased that its next efforts could be further
changing requirements to share in ad revenue.

YouTube this year updated its recommendation feature tospotlight videos users are likely to find the most gratifying,
brushing aside concerns that such an approach can trap people inbubbles of misinformation and like-minded opinions.