Bleach sold as a miracle cure for autism on YouTube

Hundreds of videos promoting bleach as a cure for autism have been discovered on YouTube.

The substance, dubbed "Miracle Mineral Solution" (MMS), caused dozens of injuries and caused two deaths in the United States.

According to a survey of the Technology Insider Business Insider, some appeared in the first three search results for "autism cure".

YouTube removed most of them after they were published.

Business Insider reporter Tom Porter said he was "surprised" by the popularity of some videos, which promote MMS as a cure for a range of diseases, including malaria and cancer.

"These videos were for people just looking for general information about autism or malaria," he told the BBC. "He will have been promoted to people who have never heard of it."

He found that the top 20 videos promoting MMS on YouTube had been viewed more than 3 million times. Some published advertisements linked to pages on which users could buy the substance.

YouTube reportedly told Business Insider that it was not proactively looking for content that violated its rules, but that it had modified its algorithms to prevent MMS videos from appearing in search results.

"From what I understand, they do not monitor their own site to remove videos that violate their policy," Porter said.

"The activists I've talked to tell me it's not enough, they have the responsibility to respect their own policies so that they do not spread dangerous information to millions of people." worldwide."

YouTube has been fiercely criticized for bringing controversial conspiracy and content theories with its algorithms. Last January, she published a blog article promising to fight against the "limit content" recommendations, a category that includes "videos promoting a fake miracle cure for a serious illness".

"It shocked me that such a clear case of misinformation, which caused harm to children, was allowed to spread so freely and that they were able to exploit this platform as effectively", said Mr. Porter.

YouTube has not responded to a request for comment.