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Highlights
- YouTube says it will ban all misinformation surrounding vaccines in a bid to fight the spread of false claims.
- YouTube said that it was banning the accounts of several prominent anti-vaccine activists including those of Joseph Mercola and Robert F Kennedy Jr in this regard.
- The move by YouTube comes in the wake of similar steps taken earlier this year by tech giants such as Facebook and Twitter.
YouTube has vowed to ban all misinformation related to vaccines in its bid to quash the spread of false claims about approved vaccines being dangerous. The American online video sharing and social media platform owned by Alphabet (Google’s parent) also said that it was banning the accounts of several prominent anti-vaccine activists including those of Joseph Mercola and Robert F Kennedy Jr in this regard.
The streaming giant’s latest move comes after it recently introduced a similar ban on all misinformation related to coronavirus vaccines. However, the new policy expands the rules to misleading claims about all other long-approved vaccines as well.
Examples of the content that won't be allowed on YouTube include claims that the flu vaccine causes infertility and that the MMR sho – which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella – can cause autism, according to YouTube's policies.
What YouTube said
YouTube says it has taken over 130,000 videos off its platform since last year for infringing its COVID-19 vaccine policies.
“At the onset of COVID-19, we built on these policies when the pandemic hit, and worked with experts to develop 10 new policies around COVID-19 and medical misinformation,” YouTube said in a blogpost.
YouTube added that the latest policy update was a crucial step "to address vaccine and health misinformation on our platform, and we’ll continue to invest across the board in policies” that bring its users high-quality information.
Image Source: © Sebcz| Megapixl.com
Similar measures by Facebook, Twitter
Youtube’s move comes in the wake of tech giants such as Facebook and Twitter taking similar steps earlier this year after they were criticised for not taking enough measures to prevent the spread of false claims on their platforms.
In February, Facebook said it would remove posts with false claims about vaccines, including claims that vaccines cause autism.
In March, Twitter rolled out its own policy that explained the penalties for posting misinformation about the virus and vaccines.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Russian state-backed broadcaster RT's German-language channels were deleted from YouTube, as YouTube said the channels violated its coronavirus misinformation policy.
Russia on Wednesday called the move "unprecedented information aggression”. It also threatened to block YouTube.
Bottom Line
The videos shared on YouTube often contain unverified false content, which subsequently go viral on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Considering the combined reach of all these social media platforms, the videos garner views in millions at times. Hence this step by YouTube should prove to be quiet instrumental in stalling the circulation of false claims. However, it is still to be seen how this measure fares going ahead.
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