YouTube apologizes after suggesting that viewers of Notre Dame fire livestreams read about 9/11

YouTube apologized after auto-generated text beneath livestreams of the (still ongoing) fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, suggested that viewers read about the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Some far-right figures and accounts have invoked comparisons between the cathedral fire and 9/11 and other instances of terrorism. As of publishing time, there is no confirmed evidence suggesting that the fire is the result of terrorism.

YouTube blamed the errors on an algorithm.

A recent Bloomberg exposé reported that YouTube executives ignored numerous warnings about the spread of misinformation on the platform to focus instead on engagement; as a result, extremism and conspiracy theories ran rampant and YouTube ultimately became a radicalization tool for the far right.