YouTube announced that it will ban videos that claim COVID-19 vaccines are ineffective or dangerous - anti-vaccine - as well as all materials that question measles and chickenpox immunization.
Through a statementThe company said that as part of its new policies around medical misinformation, more than 130,000 videos have been removed since last year for violating the platform's rules on the COVID-19 vaccine.
"The politics around medical misinformation come fraught with challenges. Scientific understanding evolves as new research emerges and, first-hand, personal experience plays an important role in online discourse."
In this regard, he said that vaccines in particular have been a source of intense debate over the years, despite opinion and constant campaigns by health authorities on their effectiveness, so they extended their policies to vaccines currently administered, which are approved and confirmed as safe by health authorities.
It should be noted that YouTube's community standards already prohibit certain types of medical misinformation, working closely with health authorities, so they have long since deleted content claiming that drinking turpentine can cure diseases, for example.
He also reported seeing false claims about coronavirus vaccines leading to misinformation about vaccines in general, at a point when it is more important than ever to expand the work they started with COVID-19 to other vaccines.
As such, "content that falsely claims that approved vaccines are dangerous and cause chronic health effects, claims that vaccines do not reduce disease transmission, or contains misinformation about the substances they contain" will be removed.
This would include content that falsely states that vaccines cause autism, cancer, or infertility, or that the substances they contain can trace back to those who receive them. This not only covers specific vaccines such as measles or hepatitis B, but also applies to general statements about vaccines.
However, the platform stated that, given the importance of public discussion and debate to the scientific process, they will continue to allow content about vaccine policy, new vaccine trials, and historical vaccine successes or failures on YouTube.
Personal testimonials related to vaccines will also be allowed, as long as the video does not violate other community guidelines, or the channel does not show a pattern of negative promotion of vaccines.
"Today's policy update is an important step in addressing vaccine and health misinformation on our platform, and we will continue to invest across the board in policies and products that provide high-quality information to our viewers and the entire community," he said.
YouTube blocks Russian accounts
YouTube blocked the accounts of RT DE and Der Fehlende Part on Tuesday for violating internal community rules by spreading "false information" about the coronavirus and attempting to bypass a download suspension.
The Kremlin called the decision "censorship" and said it did not rule out the adoption of coercive measures against this platform, to respect Russian laws.
Russia's telecommunications agency, Roskomnadzor, said it had asked Google, which owns YouTube, to lift restrictions against RT DE and Fehlende Part as soon as possible.
He also recalled that the law provides for a full or partial suspension of access if the owner of a platform does not execute a warning of Roskomnadzor.
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