YouTube details “long-term vision” for its medical misinformation policy

As YouTube continues its battle against medical misinformation, it is building a “policy framework” that will help it deal with dubious content. Going forward, misinformation will be broken into multiple categories based on the nature of the misleading advice.

YouTube detailed the “long-term vision” for its health policies in a blog post attributed to Global Head of Healthcare Dr. Garth Graham and Global Head of Trust and Safety Matt Halprin. Since Graham’s arrival at YouTube in 2021, his team has cracked down on harmful health videos while promoting verified content from doctors and nurses.

Despite those efforts, medical misinformation is still a major problem on YouTube, so Graham and co. are trying something new. “Moving forward, YouTube will streamline dozens of our existing medical misinformation guidelines to fall under three categories – Prevention, Treatment, and Denial,” reads the YouTube blog post.”These policies will apply to specific health conditions, treatments, and substances where content contradicts local health authorities or the World Health Organization (WHO).”

The Prevention category will include vaccine misinformation, which has become a bogeyman for YouTube since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Treatment category will look to curtail cures that are not officially approved. The Denial bucket covers videos that describe COVID-19 and other diseases as hoaxes.

In addition to the WHO, YouTube will also consult global medical authorities to determine the scope of its health content moderation. Conditions are more likely to be covered by the new policy if they present a public health risk or if they are prone to misinformation.

The first ailment covered by YouTube’s policy is cancer. As the video site hunts down videos that put forth garlic and Vitamin C as cancer cures, it is sharing a playlist of verified information related to cancer treatment. A new series of videos from the Mayo Clinic will add to YouTube’s library of useful oncological media.

These initiatives are not just needed in the United States. Over the past few months, YouTube has taken several steps to promote health creators and curb medical misinformation in Europe. Now that a new policy framework has been announced, it figured to be YouTube’s next export.