YouTube accidentally links Notre-Dame fire to Sept 11 attacks



The blaze erupted in the UNESCO world heritage landmark in the French capital April 15, sending its spire and roof crashing to the ground as flames and clouds of smoke billowed into the sky.

The fire, which at one point threatened the entire edifice, was brought under control early April 16, about nine hours after it broke out.

News outlets began live-streaming broadcasts of the fire on YouTube, but below some of the clips an unusual text box popped up - an entry from the Encyclopedia Britannica about the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

In those attacks, Al-Qaeda militants hijacked two passenger planes and flew them into the towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, causing them to collapse, while a third hijacked jet smashed into the Pentagon. Some 3,000 people were killed. 

A spokesman for YouTube, which is owned by Google, said the text box feature had been disabled for live streams related to the fire.


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The panels are supposed to combat misleading videos about well-known events - such as the first successful manned landing on the moon - by presenting the true facts, in a bid to stop the spread of conspiracy theories.

