YouTube is cracking down on videos with medical misinformation

YouTube introduced that it is cracking down on medical misinformation by eradicating videos that go towards its insurance policies, together with these recommending “harmful or ineffective” most cancers therapies and “cures.” The video platform is making its medical misinformation coverage extra strong, having already added new guidelines to make sure abortion security final month. 

YouTube will observe a framework focusing on videos that showcase prevention, therapy, and denial of various well being illnesses primarily based on unproven, dangerous, and ineffective strategies. It’s additionally taking down videos that straight contradict well being authorities on matters susceptible to misinformation, like most cancers, Covid-19, and vaccines. 

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“While specific medical guidance can change over time as we learn more, our goal is to ensure that when it comes to areas of well-studied scientific consensus, YouTube is not a platform for distributing information that could harm people,” YouTube shared in a weblog submit written by Dr. Garth Graham, Director and Global Head of Healthcare and Public Health Partnerships; and Matt Halprin, VP and Global Head of Trust and Safety.

The up to date misinformation coverage consists of eradicating content material that gives harmful medical recommendation, discourages looking for skilled care or using medically mandatory therapy, denies the existence of well-established circumstances, contradicts the steering of native well being authorities or the World Health Organization (WHO), and makes unproven therapy claims.

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For instance, this would come with videos asserting that Type 1 diabetes is reversible by means of weight loss program modifications alone, with out using monitoring or medicines like insulin, as this has no scientific foundation and discourages using medically mandatory therapy. 

According to the weblog submit, this coverage will probably be utilized when the content material within the videos is related with excessive public well being danger, publicly out there steering from well being authorities around the globe, and if it is usually susceptible to misinformation.

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Some exceptions to the coverage will embrace videos of an academic nature or in a scientific context, in addition to documentaries. However, YouTube is adamant these videos nonetheless can not actively discourage looking for skilled care.

“This means that we may allow content that is sufficiently in the public interest to remain on YouTube, even if it otherwise violates our policies,” the Youtube weblog submit defined. “For example, a video of a public hearing or comments made by national political candidates on the campaign trail that disputes health authority guidance, or graphic footage from active warzones or humanitarian crises.”

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YouTube’s battle with medical misinformation is not new; the platform has beforehand been within the highlight for eradicating videos touting Covid-19 misinformation over the previous three years. 

The platform additionally rolled out modifications to its elections misinformation insurance policies in June, when it introduced it will “stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past US Presidential elections.”