YouTube takes a baby step towards labeling authentic video

YouTube is rolling out new labels that tell if uploaded videos come from a real camera with unaltered footage and sound. The new “captured with a camera” label can be seen in action courtesy of digital content authentication service Trupic, which uploaded a video to its channel, triggering the disclosure in the video description panel. Trupic says it has the “first authentic video with C2PA Content Credentials on YouTube.”

YouTube is leaning on the C2PA standard to detect the authenticity of uploaded videos, meaning the feature will work only with recording devices and tools that support the metadata. The site’s help page for the new feature says the label “signifies that the creator used specific technology to verify their video’s origin and confirm its audio and visuals haven’t been altered.” Additionally, creators must specifically use tools with C2PA version 2.1 or higher for the label to appear — so you probably won’t see this label regularly for a long time. Companies like Leica started implementing content credentials in hardware last year; however, it isn’t yet clear whether those credentials will trigger YouTube’s labels.

In an email to The Verge, Google says it’s been “exploring” how to relay C2PA information to YouTube viewers and pointed us to its blog that explains its goal to increase transparency on AI-generated content on YouTube. Videos don’t necessarily need to be unedited to get the label; just every step of the process must support C2PA and avoid:

Google launched an “altered or synthetic content” label earlier this year that requires YouTube users to self-identify their uploads (scout’s honor!) that contain AI-generated content.