YouTube to Combat Misinformation on Cancer in Updated Health Policy
YouTube has recently announced its decision to combat medical misinformation, particularly regarding cancer, as part of its long-term policy plan. This move comes as the internet continues to be a platform for various content, including delicious recipes, technology offers, and misleading information. Social media sites, in particular, are often responsible for the spread of such misinformation, which YouTube aims to address.
YouTube’s new guidelines for health content fall into three categories: prevention, treatment and denial of misinformation. Prevent is said to review and remove videos that contradict guidelines from trusted authorities or conflict with vaccine safety and efficacy (the platform banned vaccine misinformation in 2021). Treatment should focus on dispelling all misinformation – not surprisingly – about disease treatment, including unproven cures. The platform claims that the ban focuses on removing content that makes false claims, such as that people did not die from COVID-19.
“To determine whether a disease, treatment, or substance falls within our medical misinformation policy, we evaluate whether it poses a high public health risk, publicly available guidance from health authorities around the world, and whether it is generally prone to misinformation.”, Dr. Garth, YouTube President and Global Head of Healthcare and Public Health Partnerships Graham and its vice president and global head of trust and security, Matt Halprin, said in a joint statement outlining the new policies.
Starting now, YouTube says it will specifically remove cancer-related videos that violate any of these policies — an effort it says will increase in the coming weeks. For example, if a video says that garlic cures cancer, it goes down. YouTube also shares a playlist of science-backed cancer videos and partners with the Mayo Clinic to create even more informative videos about cancer.
The policies come less than two months after YouTube said it would “stop removing content that promotes false allegations of widespread fraud, error, or interference in the 2020 and other past US presidential elections” because of restrictions on political speech. So misinformation is allowed when it threatens democracy, not just in all categories of the site – cool. However, YouTube says it allows some health videos with falsehoods to remain if the context is right, such as in the public interest. The platform says that in some cases content will be allowed to remain on display, but will be age-restricted.
