Google's (NASDAQ: GOOGL) video-sharing giant YouTube is further cracking down on the spread misinformation by banning misleading and inaccurate content about all vaccines, not just those developed to prevent COVID infection.
The platfrom announced the new policy in a blog post Wednesday, said its current community guidelines--which already prohibit the sharing of medical misinformation--have been extended to cover all vaccines that have been proven safe by the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as other health officials. These include the flu shot, the HPV vaccine, and the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
YouTube, along with other social media giants like Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), Instagram and Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), has worked to prevent the spread of COVID misinformation throughout the coronavirus pandemic. YouTube for its part has removed over 130,000 videos that have violated its COVID vaccine policies. However, the company has seen "false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general", leading YouTube to extend its COVID misinformation policy to a broader range of safe and effective vaccines.
The platfrom is cracking down specifically on content that falsely alleges that approved vaccines are dangerous and cause chronic health effects, claims that vaccines do not reduce transmission or infection of disease, or contains misinformation about vaccine ingredients. The company said the new policy will include content that claims vaccines are linked to autism, cancer or infertility, or that substances in vaccines can track those who receive them; the policy will apply to general statements about vaccines.
"As with our COVID guidelines, e consulted with local and international health organizations and experts in developing these policies," YouTube said. "For example, our new guidance on vaccine side effects maps to public vaccine resources provided by health authorities and backed by medical consensus."
YouTube said there are exceptions to its new guidelines. The company will allow videos about vaccine policies, clinical trials and historical vaccine successes or failures to remain on the platform. YouTube will also allow personal testimonials relating to vaccines "so long as the video doesn't violate other Community Guidelines, or the channel doesn't show a pattern of promoting vaccine hesitancy."
The new policy changes went into effect on Wednesday. The company stressed that the platform's system will take some time to reach full enforcement.