YouTube said it will remove content that spreads misinformation about all approved vaccines, expanding the ban on false claims about Covid-19 shots.

Videos claiming approved vaccines are dangerous and cause autism, cancer, or infertility are among those that will be phased out, the company said.

An online video company owned by Google said in a blog post on Wednesday that any content “falsely claiming approved vaccines are unsafe and cause chronic health effects” would be removed.

“This would include content that falsely says that approved vaccines cause autism, cancer or infertility, or that substances in vaccines can track those who receive them.”

The policy includes the closure of anti-vaccine influencer accounts.

The tech giants have been criticized for not doing more to counter false health information on their sites.

In July, US President Joe Biden said that social media platforms were largely responsible for people’s scepticism about vaccinations by spreading misinformation, and urged them to address the issue.

Google-owned YouTube said 130,000 videos have been removed from its platform since last year when it banned content spreading misinformation about Covid vaccines.

In a blog post, the company said it has seen false claims about Covid injections “spilled over into misinformation about vaccines in general.”

The new policy covers long-approved vaccines, such as those against measles or hepatitis B.

“We are expanding our medical disinformation policies on YouTube with new guidelines on currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed as safe and effective by local health authorities and the WHO,” the post said, referring to the World Organisation. of health.

Personal testimonials regarding vaccines, content on vaccine policies, new vaccine trials and historical videos of vaccine successes or failures will be allowed to remain on the site, the company said.

The move follows a similar ban put in place by Facebook in February that, among other things, targets false claims that vaccines are ineffective or cause autism. But since then, the company has faced challenges in enforcing it.
In March, Twitter announced that users who repeatedly divulged misinformation about vaccines would be banned from the platform.

Since 2020, Google says it has removed 130,000 videos for violating the company’s COVID-19 vaccination policy, and is reinforcing those efforts.