YouTube said on Wednesday it’s expanding its medical misinformation policies and will remove videos that spread false information on any vaccine.
In a blog post, YouTube outlined the types of content that it will no longer allow on its platform. This includes videos claiming that vaccines do not reduce rates of transmission or contraction of disease and content that includes misinformation on the makeup of the vaccines. Namely, that substances in vaccines can track those who receive them.
Claims that vaccines cause chronic health issues such as autism, cancer, or infertility will also be removed.
The Google owned company has had a ban in effect on false claims about the COVID-19 vaccine, but this new ban will extend to misleading claims about vaccines in general, such as those against measles or Hepatitis B. “We’ve steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general, and we’re now at a point where it’s more important than ever to expand the work we started with COVID-19 to other vaccines,” YouTube said in the post.
In addition to the ban, YouTube removed the accounts of several high-profile anti-vaccine influencers like that of Joseph Michael Mercola and Robert Francis Kennedy Jr.
This announcement comes as the U.S. and other countries try to appeal to those who are vaccine-hesitant.
Nearly 25 percent of eligible Americans aged 12 and older remain completely unvaccinated, according to the CDC.
Social media reacted swiftly to YouTube’s updated guidelines:
https://twitter.com/bobmindedness/status/1443219685156208644
YouTube cracking down on vaccine misinformation isn't censorship, it's a matter of public health.
— Amy Lynn🐇💀 (@AmyLynnStL) September 29, 2021
Despite tech companies announcing a string of new rules around vaccine misinformation during the pandemic, falsehoods have still found big audiences on the platforms.
In March, Twitter began labelling content that made misleading claims about COVID-19 vaccines and said it would ban accounts that repeatedly share such posts. Facebook, which also owns Instagram, had already prohibited posts claiming COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility or contain tracking microchips, and in February announced it would similarly remove claims that vaccines are toxic or can cause health problems such as autism.
YouTube claims that since last year they have removed 130,000 videos for violating its COVID-19 vaccine policies stating, “Scientific understanding evolves as new research emerges, and firsthand, personal experience regularly plays a powerful role in online discourse”.