YouTube will tighten existing medical misinformation criteria for specific medical conditions, treatments, and drugs if the content it broadcasts conflicts with either the local healthcare system or the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Starting today and ramping up in the coming weeks, we will begin removing content that promotes cancer treatments proven to be harmful or ineffective, or content that discourages viewers from seeking professional medical treatment,” YouTube said in a blog post on 15 August.
Many of the therapies included in the blog post, such as "take vitamin C instead of radiation therapy" and "garlic cures cancer," will be eliminated, according to the business.
In a blog post defining the company's "long-term vision" for its health-related misinformation policies, Garth Graham, Director and Global Head of Healthcare and Public Health Partnerships at YouTube, and Matt Halprin, VP and Global Head of Trust and Safety, listed three classifications for the rules: Prevention, Treatment, and Denial.
“These policies will apply to specific health conditions, treatments, and substances where content contradicts local health authorities or WHO,” the blog post said.
According to the report, YouTube has stated that it will either evaluate the content or provide an information panel underneath such videos to provide more context.
Public interest content, such as remarks made by politicians on the campaign trail that disagree with health authority recommendations, or graphic footage from ongoing combat zones or humanitarian disasters are a few examples of posts that are excluded from this rule.
“We may also make exceptions for personal testimonies or content that discusses the results of a specific medical study,” the post said.
The change is probably going to make the company's strategy simpler for creators, viewers, and partners.
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