YouTube expands its ban to ALL anti-vaccine content

YouTube expands its ban to ALL anti-vaccine content
YouTube expands its ban to ALL anti-vaccine content
Avatar of Harry Johnson
Written by Harry Johnson

YouTube’s expanded policy will apply to “currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed to be safe and effective by local health authorities and the World Health Organization.

  • YouTube announced it will ban all and any anti-vaccination content under its new expanded policy.
  • New policy will also remove all false claims about routine immunization for common diseases.
  • YouTube is also banning all channels associated with several prominent anti-vaccine activists.

YouTube, an American online video sharing and social media platform owned by Google, announced that it is changing and expanding its policy on medical and health information and will ban all and any anti-vaccine content from now on.

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Moving beyond its ban on false information about COVID-19 vaccines, the social media giant said that the new policy will also affect the material that contains misinformation about other approved vaccines.

YouTube‘s expanded policy will apply to “currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed to be safe and effective by local health authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO),” the company said in a statement.

The new policy will also ban and remove all false claims about routine immunizations for diseases like measles, Hepatitis B and influenza.

That would include cases where vloggers who post content on the platform have claimed that approved vaccines do not work, or wrongly linked them to chronic health effects.

YouTube said content that “falsely says that approved vaccines cause autism, cancer or infertility, or that substances in vaccines can track those who receive them” will be taken down.

YouTube is also banning channels associated with several prominent anti-vaccine activists including Robert F Kennedy Jr and Joseph Mercola, a YouTube spokesperson said.

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

On Tuesday, YouTube had blocked the German-language channels of Russia’s state propaganda mouthpiece RT for violating its COVID-19 misinformation guidelines.

YouTube said it had issued a warning to RT before shutting the two channels down, but the move prompted a threat from Moscow to block the video site.

“As with any significant update, it will take time for our systems to fully ramp up enforcement,” YouTube added in its statement.

YouTube is not the only social media giant grappling with how to deal with the spread of COVID-19 conspiracy theories and medical misinformation in general.

Facebook this month launched a renewed effort to tackle violence and conspiracy groups, beginning by taking down a German network spreading COVID-19 misinformation.

About the author

Avatar of Harry Johnson

Harry Johnson

Harry Johnson has been the assignment editor for eTurboNews for mroe than 20 years. He lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is originally from Europe. He enjoys writing and covering the news.

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