YouTube is to counter fake news with articles sourced from internet encyclopedia Wikipedia in the latest move to stem the flow of disinformation on the video-sharing website.

Google-owned YouTube will add snippets of information from Wikipedia beneath videos which push conspiracy theories to provide alternative points of view, what the company is calling "information cues".

But the move has provoked concern from Wikipedia contributors and the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit which helps maintain the site.

Wikimedia said it had not been told that YouTube would use its articles to counter fake news and conspiracy theories, and it was "not a formal partnership".

The internet encyclopedia is maintained by a global network of volunteers who edit and amend the articles and relies on donations to keep the site running. Wikipedia stresses that mistakes can be made, and its articles are regularly amended. A statement from Wikimedia asked that companies which plan to rely on its articles "give back in the spirit of sustainability".