YouTube cracks down on anti-vaccine misinformation

(Representative photo) Video-sharing giant YouTube has already banned posts that spread false myths around coronavirus treatments, including ones that share inaccurate claims about Covid-19 vaccines shown to be safe.(AFP)

YouTube announced yesterday it would remove videos and some high-profile users that falsely claim approved vaccines are dangerous, as social networks seek to crack down on health misinformation around Covid-19 and other diseases. Video-sharing giant YouTube has already banned posts that spread false myths around coronavirus treatments, including ones that share inaccurate claims about Covid-19 vaccines shown to be safe. But the Google-owned site said its concerns about the spread of medical conspiracy theories went beyond the pandemic. “We’ve steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general,” YouTube said in a statement. “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.” A YouTube spokesperson said channels of several “well-known vaccine misinformation spreaders will be terminated,” naming Joseph Mercola and Sherri Tenpenny as well as a Robert F Kennedy, Jr affiliated channel. An AFP investigation found that Tenpenny runs a sprawling enterprise based on anti-vaccine activism, disdain for masks and testing, and denials that Covid-19 is real. Mercola, a Florida-based osteopathic physician, was the subject of a New York Times article titled: “The most influential spreader of coronavirus misinformation online”. While Robert F Kennedy Jr had already been blocked from Instagram in February for spreading misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines. YouTube said the expanded policy will apply to “currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed to be safe and effective by local health authorities and the WHO (World Health Organisation).” It will see false claims about routine immunisations for diseases like measles and Hepatitis B removed from YouTube. These would include cases where vloggers have claimed that approved vaccines do not work, or wrongly linked them to chronic health effects. Content that “falsely says that approved vaccines cause autism, cancer or infertility, or that substances in vaccines can track those who receive them” will also be taken down. “As with any significant update, it will take time for our systems to fully ramp up enforcement,” YouTube added. It stressed there would be exceptions to the new guidelines, with personal testimonials of negative experiences with vaccines still allowed, so long as “the channel doesn’t show a pattern of promoting vaccine hesitancy.” YouTube said it had removed more than 130,000 videos since last year for violating its Covid-19 vaccine policies.Russia threatens YouTube after suspension of German RT channels Russia yesterday threatened to block YouTube and take other retaliatory measures, after the US video-sharing platform blocked the German-language channels of state broadcaster RT. Moscow has recently been ramping up pressure on foreign tech giants as it seeks greater control over content available online to its domestic audience. At the same time, it has launched a series of efforts to broaden its influence abroad, especially with RT — formerly known as Russia Today — which operates broadcasters and websites in multiple languages. YouTube on Tuesday told German media that it had issued a warning to RT for violating its coronavirus disinformation guidelines and then shuttered two channels for breaching user terms. Yesterday, Russia’s foreign ministry accused YouTube of an “unprecedented act of media aggression” which it said was likely aided by German authorities — a claim Berlin denied. The Russian ministry said the adoption of retaliatory measures against German media “seems not only appropriate but also necessary”. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, responded by saying the German government had “nothing to do with” YouTube’s move and warned Moscow against potential retaliation against German media in Russia. Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor for its part threatened to restrict access to YouTube in Russia, accusing the company of “censorship”. Roskomnadzor said it had sent a letter to YouTube’s owner Google “demanding that all restrictions be lifted” from the two channels — RT DE and Der Fehlende Part — “as soon as possible”. The regulator said YouTube could be issued with a warning and “the law provides for measures of full or partial restriction of access” if such warnings are ignored. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later accused YouTube of “censorship” and said Russian laws had been “grossly violated”. “There must be zero tolerance for such violations,” he said. “This of course is not the case,” she said in a video on RT’s Russian Telegram channel. On Tuesday, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said on Twitter that Germany had declared a “media war” on Russia. She called on Moscow to ban Deutsche Welle and other German media working in the country — “without delay”. The Kremlin has repeatedly accused foreign-owned social media of interfering in Russian politics, including by hosting content supportive of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Ahead of parliamentary elections this month, Roskomnadzor blocked dozens of websites linked to Navalny, whose organisations were banned in Russia under “extremism” legislation. Courts have punished non-compliant platforms, including Twitter, Google and Facebook, with a series of fines and in March started reducing the speed of Twitter’s services. Yesterday, a Moscow district court slapped Google with two more fines totalling 6.5 million rubles ($89,000) for failing to remove banned content. Google has already been hit with several fines for the same charges. It has also been penalised for breaching a controversial law passed in 2014 that requires the personal data of Russian users to be stored inside the country. Launched in 2005 as “Russia Today”, state-funded RT has expanded with broadcasters and websites in languages including English, French, Spanish and Arabic.