YouTube Videos of Notre Dame Fire Flagged for Misinformation

Early livestream videos that broadcast the devastating fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris were flagged for misinformation and showed viewers an article about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

BuzzFeed News reported Monday, as live footage of the fire first spread, YouTube's automated systems recognized the live-streams as some sort of misinformation. That triggered a new feature on videos that tries to tamp down false reporting by showing facts.

In the case of the cathedral fire, an Encyclopedia Britannica article called "September 11 attacks" appeared in a grey bar underneath the video player. A snippet of the article was visible, along with a link to read the full text.

BuzzFeed claimed to have discovered at least three livestreams of the fire posted by major news outlets containing the disclaimer. YouTube was made aware of the abnormality and removed the alerts.

"These panels are triggered algorithmically and our systems sometimes make the wrong call," a YouTube spokesperson told BuzzFeed. "We are disabling these panels for livestreams related to the fire."

There was no immediate word on what caused the fire at the cathedral, which was completed in 1345 after nearly 200 years of construction. It has been added to and renovated several times over the years.

More recently, a project was underway to shore up the cathedral's roof. The fire caused the main spire and the roof to collapse, which left the intricate metal scaffolding standing in the middle.

As the fire continued to burn, however, the scaffolding appeared to be collapsing in itself.

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