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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsYouTube is banning prominent anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
The Google-owned video site previously only banned misinformation about coronavirus vaccines. Facebook made the same change months ago.As part of a new set of policies aimed at cutting down on anti-vaccine content on the Google-owned site, YouTube will ban any videos that claim that commonly used vaccines approved by health authorities are ineffective or dangerous. The company previously blocked videos that made those claims about coronavirus vaccines, but not ones for other vaccines like those for measles or chickenpox.
Misinformation researchers have for years said the popularity of anti-vaccine content on YouTube was contributing to growing skepticism of lifesaving vaccines in the United States and around the world. Vaccination rates have slowed and about 56 percent of the U.S. population has had two shots, compared with 71 percent in Canada and 67 percent in the United Kingdom. In July, President Biden said social media companies were partially responsible for spreading misinformation about the vaccines, and need to do more to address the issue.
The change marks a shift for the social media giant, which streams more than 1 billion hours worth of content every day. Like its peers Facebook and Twitter, the company has long resisted policing content too heavily, arguing maintaining an open platform is critical to free speech. But as the companies increasingly come under fire from regulators, lawmakers and regular users for contributing to social ills including vaccine skepticism YouTube is again changing policies that it has held onto for months.
**PayWall**https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/29/youtube-ban-joseph-mercola/
Wounded Bear
(58,437 posts)ratchiweenie
(7,744 posts)Mad_Machine76
(24,355 posts)by refusing to cover Abbott, DeathSantis, Tate, et. al and spreading their disinformation and their efforts to fight against mitigation.
malaise
(267,800 posts)WA-03 Democrat
(3,017 posts)Yelling fire in a movie theater when there is not one is not free speech. Yet they do it a gillzion times a day and its caused death and destruction. Its not a platform it is media. They are an ad company who makes their money from selling ads on their media. We have regulations to deal with this.
By the way I love Rick Beatos YouTube channel. YouTube is a good tool, it just needs a macro safety switch on it.
Botany
(70,289 posts)Phoenix61
(16,951 posts)malaise
(267,800 posts)Scrivener7
(50,773 posts)I'm guessing their algorithm is showing that they've milked as much money as they can from giving the morons a platform.
Maybe deaths are causing diminishing returns.
Botany
(70,289 posts)n/t
Mad_Machine76
(24,355 posts)but people also really need to be in the streets in places like Florida, Texas, etc. where political leaders are actively fighting against mitigation efforts.