Silhouettes of laptop and mobile device users are seen next to a screen projection of the YouTube logo.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters
YouTube on Tuesday announced a latest policy for combatting medical misinformation on the video-sharing platform, based on a blog post.
The corporate said it can streamline its existing guidelines to fall under three categories: prevention, treatment and denial. In doing so, YouTube will remove content that contradicts well-established guidance from health officials about topics comparable to Covid-19, reproductive health, cancer and harmful substances, amongst others.
“While specific medical guidance can change over time as we learn more, our goal is to make sure that on the subject of areas of well-studied scientific consensus, YouTube shouldn’t be a platform for distributing information that might harm people,” the corporate said.
YouTube, which is owned by Google, has historically struggled to moderate the content that’s uploaded on its platform. A former YouTube moderator sued the corporate in 2020, alleging that many content moderators remain of their positions for lower than a yr and that the corporate is “chronically understaffed.”
Because of this, the corporate is commonly playing catch-up, racing to remove posts that violate its established guidelines.
YouTube said it can determine whether a condition matches inside its latest medical policy by assessing whether it is a high public health risk that is often susceptible to misinformation. The corporate pointed to cancer for example since people often turn to guidance from platforms comparable to YouTube after learning of a diagnosis.
This implies content that daunts effective treatment or promotes unproven treatment will probably be removed, based on the blog post.
But YouTube said content that’s of public interest may remain available, even when it violates the brand new policy. As an illustration, if a politician disputes official health guidance or a public hearing takes place that features inaccurate information, YouTube may not remove it.
The corporate said it can work so as to add additional context to videos for viewers in these instances.
