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YouTube bans all anti-vaccine content on its platform, including misinformation about vaccines approved for common diseases in addition to COVID-19, the company said on Wednesday.
The Google-owned social media platform will remove any video attempting to portray well-known vaccines approved by federal health authorities as harmful, she said in a blog post first reported by the Washington post.
This includes content claiming that vaccines can cause autism, cancer, infertility or may allow the recipient of the vaccine to be tracked via a microchip.
YouTube previously banned false information about coronavirus vaccines in October 2020. The company said it would still allow discussions about vaccine policies, new vaccine trials and personal vaccine receipt accounts.
A YouTube spokesperson also confirmed to Insider that the company will be removing prominent anti-vaccine accounts like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, and anti-vaccine activist. vaccine and author Joseph Mercola.
Kennedy Jr. was one of 12 people a recent report found to be the most prolific COVID-19 disinformation online.
The extension of the vaccine content rules on Wednesday marks a major change in the way the company handles content on its service.
“Building strong policies takes time,” said Matt Halprin, YouTube vice president of global trust and security. To post. “We wanted to launch a comprehensive policy, applicable with consistency and responding adequately to the challenge.”
YouTube and other social media companies have long taken a hands-off approach to moderating content.
But pressure has grown from regulators and the general public in recent years, especially amid the pandemic and the 2020 presidential election, for platforms to more actively control disinformation on their websites.
Facebook and Twitter have also taken action to limit the spread of misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine online.
Yet fake content has always been leaked – private groups dedicated to discussing and taking proven COVID-19 treatments like the horse drug Ivermectin have proliferated, Insider reported in early September.
Businesses also began cracking down on false claims by former President Donald Trump in 2020, plunging the subject of moderation of content on social media platforms into an ongoing political war.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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