YouTube has banned all controversial vaccine information from its popular video-sharing platform. The website will retroactively wipe existing videos that promote claims outside the mainstream scientific consensus.
The ban on vaccine misinformation, announced in a blog post on Wednesday, comes as countries around the world continue to offer free immunizations for COVID-19 to a somewhat hesitant public. Public health officials have struggled to push back against a steady current of online misinformation about the COVID-19 shot since the development of the immunization first got underway last year.
YouTube’s new rules will prohibit disinformation — and misinformation — about any vaccine that is currently being administered and has been approved by a health authority, like the World Health Organization. Last year, the platform had already begun to crack down on claims about the COVID-19 vaccine.
This extends their crackdown to all vaccines.
YouTube, which is owned by Google, will delete videos that paint vaccines as the cause of health issues like cancer, infertility or autism. This theory has been discredited by the scientific community for decades, but it has endured on the internet. As of Wednesday, YouTube has already terminated several popular anti-vaccine accounts, including the accounts run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former surrogate for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
“We’ve steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general, and we’re now at a point where it’s more important than ever to expand the work we started with COVID-19 to other vaccines,” YouTube said in a prepared statement.
The new rule will apply to general claims about vaccines as well as claims about specific vaccinations, such as those for measles or flu.
Claims about vaccines that are being tested will still be allowed. Personal stories about reactions to the vaccine will also be permitted, as long as they do not come from an account with a history of promoting vaccine misinformation.
Some observers recognize vaccine misinformation as a problem but remain skeptical of YouTube’s ability to filter truth from falsehood.
False claims on television are punished by the Federal Communications Commission, but false claims on YouTube will be punished by… YouTube.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.