This week, YouTube launched a new set of rules that will make it harder for users to spread “medical misinformation” on the site.
The site for sharing videos talked about its “long-term goal” for “medical misinformation policies,” which includes content about how to treat cancer.
According to a statement made by YouTube, the company is dedicated to publishing “high-quality health content” that adheres to “local and worldwide health authority guidelines on topics that present serious real-world dangers, which includes misinformation about COVID-19, vaccinations, reproductive wellness, hazardous substances, and more.”
“These rules will apply to certain medical conditions, procedures, and substances where content goes against what local health officials or the World Health Organization (WHO) say,” YouTube said.
The platform said it wants to make its rules clearer for users and stop “extremely harmful content while still leaving room for debate and discussion.”
The company said, “To decide if a condition, medical treatment, or substance falls under our medical disinformation policies, we’ll look at whether it’s linked to a high public health danger, whether or not there’s public advice from health authorities all over the world, and the possibility that it’s typically prone to disinformation.”
YouTube wants to divide its “misinformation guidelines” into three groups: preventing it, dealing with it, and denying it.
For example, it said that material that “contradicts” “both the safety and efficacy of authorized vaccines” could be taken down. There will also be a prohibition on content that shares “unproven remedies” for different health problems. Videos known to deny the presence of certain conditions would also be against the rules of the site and would be taken down.
YouTube wants to “get rid of false information about cancer treatment.”
“Starting today and getting more serious over the next few weeks, we will start taking down content that supports cancer treatments that have been shown to be harmful or useless, or that stops people from going to a doctor. That includes material that encourages treatment methods that are unproven instead of authorized care or as a surefire cure. It also includes material that encourages treatments that medical officials have said are dangerous. For example, a video that says ‘garlic heals cancer’ or ‘take vitamin C rather than radiation therapy’ would be taken down,” YouTube said.
According to the statement, it “may” make an exemption for anything that contains “personal testimonials or content which discusses the findings of a particular medical study.”
YouTube said, “Debate and discussion are important for the progress of science and medicine. Public interest has to be one thing we think about. In other words, we may let content stay on YouTube if it is important enough to the public, even if it breaks our rules in other ways.”
