False claims that those vaccines are dangerous or cause health issues, like cancer, infertility or autism - theories that scientists have discredited for decades but have endured on the internet - should also be removed. Under its new policy, YouTube says it will remove misinformation about any vaccine that has been approved by health authorities, such as the World Health Organization, and is currently being administered.
YouTube declined to provide details on how many accounts were removed in the crackdown. In an emailed statement to The Associated Press, Kennedy criticized the ban: “There is no instance in history when censorship and secrecy have advanced either democracy or public health.” was one of several popular anti-vaccine accounts that was gone by Wednesday morning. The YouTube channel of an organization run by environmental activist Robert F. Up until Wednesday, anti-vaccine influencers, who have thousands of subscribers, had used YouTube to stoke fears around vaccines that health experts point out have been safely administered for decades. “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,” YouTube said in a blog post.
