Fighting Wave of Misinformation, YouTube Bans Content Containing False Vaccine Claims

YouTube announced a sweeping effort Wednesday to remove video content containing misleading and inaccurate information about vaccines.

The platform announced the change in a blog post, explaining that its current community guidelines, which already prohibit the sharing of medical misinformation, have been extended to cover "currently administered" vaccines that have been proven safe by the World Health Organization and other health agencies.

The video-sharing platform previously had banned content containing false claims about coronavirus vaccines, under its COVID-19 misinformation policy. The new change extends that policy to a far wider number of vaccines.

The company said it will now no longer allow users to baselessly speculate that approved vaccines, like the ones given to prevent the flu or measles, are dangerous or cause diseases.

It said the expanded ban applies to videos that claim vaccines aren't safe or effective or that cause other health issues such as cancer and infertility. In its announcement, the company pointed specifically to videos that inaccurately describe the ingredients used in vaccines or allege they contain properties that can be used to "track" those who receive them.

"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 the blog post.

There are some exceptions: Claims about vaccines that are currently 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 that has a history of promoting "vaccine hesitancy."

YouTube’s latest attempt to stem a tide of vaccine misinformation comes as countries around the globe struggle to convince a somewhat vaccine-hesitant public to accept the free coronavirus shots that scientists say will end the pandemic that began 20 months ago.

“The concept that vaccines harm — instead of help — is at the foundation of a lot of misinformation,” said Jeanine Guidry, assistant professor of public relations and director of the Media+Culture Lab at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Media and Culture.

She added that, if enforced properly, the company's new policy could stop bad information from influencing, for example, a new parent who is using the internet to research whether or not to vaccinate their child.

Up until Wednesday, anti-vaccine influencers had used YouTube to stoke fears around vaccines that health experts point out have been safely administered for decades. The YouTube channel of an organization run by environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was one of several popular anti-vaccine accounts that was gone by Wednesday morning.

In an emailed statement to The Associated Press, Kennedy criticized the ban: "There is no instance in history when censorship and secrecy have advanced either democracy or public health."

YouTube declined to provide details on how many accounts were removed in the crackdown. And the company, which is owned by Google, warned that the more widespread removal of videos may take some time as it works to implement and enforce the policy.

As a number of prominent social media companies, like YouTube and Facebook, have tightened their restrictions regarding vaccine misinformation over the last year, many conspiracy theorists have begun migrating to other less-regulated platforms. Rumble, another video-sharing site, has become a popular choice for far-right groups and others who are vaccine-resistant, Slate reported in March.

But many conservative pages that spread vaccine misinformation are still active on YouTube, and their videos continue to attract millions of views.

Despite tech companies announcing a string of new rules around COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation during the pandemic, falsehoods have still found big audiences on the platforms.

In March, Twitter began labeling content that made misleading claims about coronavirus vaccines and said it would ban accounts that repeatedly share such posts. Facebook, which also owns Instagram, had already prohibited posts claiming coronavirus vaccines cause infertility or contain tracking microchips, and in February announced it would similarly remove claims that vaccines are toxic or can cause health problems such as autism.

Yet popular anti-vaccine influencers remain on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, where they actively use the platforms to sell books or videos. On Facebook and Instagram alone, a handful of anti-vaccine influencers still have a combined 6.4 million followers, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a social media watchdog group. And coronavirus vaccine misinformation has been so pervasive on Facebook that President Biden in July accused influencers on the platform of "killing people" with falsehoods about the vaccine.

Other platforms have taken a harder line. Pinterest, for example, prohibited any kind of vaccine misinformation even before the pandemic began. Now, if users search for content about vaccines on the site, they are directed to visit authoritative websites operated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the WHO.

Editor's note: Google is among NPR's financial supporters.

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