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Vaccine misinformation no longer welcome on YouTube
Jordan Bowen reports
TAMPA, Fla. - YouTube is cracking down on vaccination misinformation. On Wednesday, the company announced its banning any content that spreads misinformation about vaccines beginning with banning the accounts of several well-known anti-vaxxers.
"It’s a big problem and a technical difficulty to try and manage because YouTube hosts literally billions of hours of video," The Symphony Agency's Chief Digital Officer Chris Jenkins said.
In a blog post on Wednesday, YouTube announced the ban writing, "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."
Jenkins said accurately deciphering what’s misinformation and what isn’t for all vaccines won’t be easy.
"With a system that size, it's never going to be human-powered. It's all algorithmically driven. That system can be slow and arbitrary and capricious just because of the amount of content that's in there," Jenkins explained.
"It really is a small handful of folks who can have a disproportionate impact on the marketplace of ideas that's driving these platforms, trying to take steps to combat that," Jenkins said.
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In July, the White House named 12 well-known anti-vaxxers, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., saying they account for more than 65 percent of anti-vax misinformation spread on social media. As of Wednesday, all have been banned from YouTube.
"No major corporation is making decisions purely out of their own virtue. Right. Everything is about whether or not it affects the profit margin and whether it adds more revenue," Jenkins said.
It’s why some argue it’s a move that may not change much and one we’ll need to see play out.
"The folks who really prefer the misinformation content tend to be in the minority, these platforms are looking at the audience at large and going, OK, we need to air on the side of fact-checking this material because the majority of our audience wants us to do that," Jenkins stated.
The ban takes effect immediately, but the company is warning the widespread removal of videos may take some time as it works to enforce the policy.
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