YouTube cracks down on videos spreading vaccine misinformation

Gulf Today Report

YouTube said on Wednesday it would remove videos that falsely claim approved vaccines are dangerous, as social networks seek to crack down on health misinformation around COVID-19 and other diseases.

Video-sharing giant YouTube has already banned posts that spread false myths around coronavirus treatments, including ones that share inaccurate claims about COVID-19 vaccines shown to be safe.

The ban on vaccine misinformation, announced in a blog post, comes as countries around the world continue to offer free immunisations for COVID-19 to a somewhat hesitant public.

YouTube said it had removed more than 130,000 videos since last year for violating its COVID-19 vaccine policies.

On Tuesday, the company told German media that it had blocked the German-language channels of Russia's state broadcaster RT for violating its COVID misinformation guidelines.

Public health officials have struggled to push back against a steady current of online misinformation about the COVID-19 shot since development of the immunisation first got underway last year.

YouTube's new rules will prohibit misinformation about any vaccine that has been approved by health authorities such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and are currently being administered. The platform had already begun to crack down late last year on false claims about the COVID-19 vaccine.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, will delete videos that falsely claim vaccines are dangerous or cause health issues, like cancer, infertility or autism — a theory that scientists have discredited for decades but has endured on the internet.

The online video company owned by Alphabet Inc is also banning channels associated with several prominent anti-vaccine activists including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Joseph Mercola, a YouTube spokesperson said.

A press email for Mercola's website said in a statement: "We are united across the world, we will not live in fear, we will stand together and restore our freedoms." Kennedy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The moves come as YouTube and other tech giants like Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. have been criticised for not doing enough to stop the spread of false health information on their sites.