Skip to main content

YouTube to remove videos with misinformation on coronavirus vaccine

Alphabet Inc’s YouTube said on Wednesday it would remove videos from YouTube that promote misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, expanding its current rules against falsehoods and conspiracy theories about the pandemic.

The video platform said it would now ban any content with claims about COVID-19 vaccines that contradict consensus from local health authorities or the World Health Organisation.

YouTube said in a blog post that this would include removing claims that the vaccine will kill people or cause infertility, or that microchips will be implanted in people who receive the vaccine.

A YouTube spokesman told Reuters that general discussions in videos about “broad concerns” over the vaccine would remain on the platform.

Conspiracy theories and misinformation about the new coronavirus vaccines have proliferated on social media during the pandemic, including through anti-vaccine personalities on YouTube and through viral videos shared across multiple platforms.

Although drugmakers and researchers are working on various treatments, vaccines are at the heart of the long-term fight to stop the new coronavirus, which has killed more than a million people, infected more than 38 million and crippled the global economy.

YouTube says it already removes content that disputes the existence or transmission of COVID-19, promotes medically unsubstantiated methods of treatment, discourages people from seeking medical care or explicitly disputes health authorities’ guidance on self-isolation or social distancing.

In its blog post, YouTube said it had removed over 200,000 videos related to dangerous or misleading COVID-19 information since early February.

The company also said it was limiting the spread of COVID-19 related misinformation on the site, including certain borderline videos about COVID-19 vaccines. A spokesman declined to provide examples of such borderline content.

YouTube said it would be announcing more steps in the coming weeks to emphasize authoritative information about COVID-19 vaccines on the site.





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Donald Trump or Joe Biden? What will change for Asean after the US election?

https://twitter.com/mujeebsubhan786 https://web.facebook.com/mdmujeeb.subhan.5

Global coronavirus cases cross 40 million: Reuters tally

Worldwide coronavirus cases crossed 40 million on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, as the onset of winter in the northern hemisphere fuelled a resurgence in the spread of the disease. The Reuters tally is based on official reporting by individual countries. Experts believe the true numbers of both cases and deaths are likely much higher, given deficiencies in testing and potential under-reporting by some countries. The Reuters data shows the pace of the pandemic continues to pick up. It took just 32 days to go from 30 million global cases to 40 million, compared with the 38 days it took to get from 20 to 30 million, the 44 days between 10 and 20 million, and the three months it took to reach 10 million cases from when the first cases were reported in Wuhan, China, in early January. Record one-day increases in new infections were seen at the end of last week, with global coronavirus cases rising above 400,000 for the first time. There were an average of around 347,000 c...

Russia-Ukraine war reaches 100 days: By the numbers

The invasion of Ukraine has lasted 100 days, with no end yet in sight as Russia and Ukraine continue to fight for control of eastern Ukraine. Russia maintains that it is conducting a "special operation" in its neighboring country, and the "operation" has taken a significant toll on the Ukrainian people. Nearly 15 million people have reportedly fled their homes since the invasion started, according to the latest data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The data indicates that around 6.8 million Ukrainian residents have headed for neighboring countries while an additional (estimated) 8 million remain displaced within the country itself. The latest count shows that 3,627,178 people went to Poland, 989,357 went to Romania, 971,417 went to Russia, 682,594 went to Hungary, 479,513 went to Moldova, 461,164 went to Slovakia and 30,092 went to Belarus. Those numbers continue to climb. Most of the refugees are women and ch...