YouTube will remove all misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines on the platform. The tech giant said it would take down videos spreading false claims about the Covid-19 vaccines on the video streaming platform.
Videos that will be removed include those claiming that the Covid-19 jab causes infertility, autism or cancer.
The company will also terminate accounts of anti-vaccine YouTubers
Tech companies have been criticized for not doing enough to curb the spread of misinformation on their platforms.
Read: President Biden Attributes High Covid-19 Infection Rate to Misinformation on Social Media
US President Joe Biden in July said social media was responsible for the wide spread of misinformation and public skepticism about the Covid-19 vaccine. He appealed to big tech to big tech to address the issue.
YouTube said that during a sweep of Covid-19 misinformation in 2020, 130,000 videos were removed. The company said that the misinformation about Covid-19 jabs had created a general misconception about vaccines in general.
YouTube says due to this, it will remove misinformation regarding long-approved vaccines including measles and hepatitis B.
Read also: Facebook says it Disabled 1.3 billion Fake accounts between October and December 2020
“We’re expanding our medical misinformation policies on YouTube with new guidelines on currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed to be safe and effective by local health authorities and the WHO,” YouTube said in a blogpost in reference to the World Health Organization.
Facebook announced in February that it was conducting a similar exercise, removing misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines causing autism.
The company has since faced challenges enforcing it.
Twitter said it would remove and misinformation regarding vaccines, and ban the authors of such tweets.
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