YouTube expands medical misinformation policies to manage harmful vaccine content

With this policy update, YouTube will remove content that includes harmful misinformation about currently approved and administered vaccines

YouTube is updating its medical misinformation policies with new guidelines on currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed to be safe and effective by the World Health Organization and local health authorities, the video streaming giant said on Wednesday.

With this policy update, YouTube will remove content that includes harmful misinformation about currently approved and administered vaccines including:

• content falsely alleging that approved vaccines are dangerous and cause chronic health effects such as autism, cancer or infertility
• content claiming that vaccines do not reduce transmission or contraction of the disease
• content that contains misinformation on the substances contained in vaccines

In addition to specific routine immunizations like for measles or Hepatitis B, the new guidelines also apply to general statements about vaccines.

However, YouTube will continue to allow content about vaccine policies, new vaccine trials, and historical vaccine successes or failures on its platform. The new guidelines will also allow personal testimonials relating to vaccines, as long as the content doesn't violate other Community Guidelines or promote vaccine hesitancy.

"We've steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general, and 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. Today's policy update is an important step to address vaccine and health misinformation on our platform, and we'll continue to invest across the board in the policies and products that bring high-quality information to our viewers and the entire YouTube community," YouTube said.