YouTube has removed thousands of videos that it says contain false and “medically unsubstantiated” information about the coronavirus. Instead, it says it’s focusing on news that contains “authoritative” information, such as videos from news sources.
Anything that goes against World Health Organization recommendations would be a violation of YouTube policy, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said during an interview with Brian Stelter on CNN‘s show, “Reliable Sources.” Discussions on the show revolve around media fairness and objectivity.
“Anything that is medically unsubstantiated, so people saying like ‘take vitamin C, take turmeric, those will cure you,’ those are examples of things things that would be a violation of our policy,” Wojcicki said.
The WHO has been criticized for promoting hype from the Chinese Communist Party about the coronavirus, which started in Wuhan, China in 2019. Other WHO criticism includes moving too slowly to warn the rest of the world about the threat.
In an attempt to deflect criticism, President Donald Trump has been attacking the Switzerland-based WHO — a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health — blaming it for his mishandling of the U.S. coronavirus response.
Last week, Trump suspended $400 million or more in annual U.S. aid to the World Health Organization, accusing it of mismanaging the response to the coronavirus epidemic. Despite declaring the outbreak a global emergency on Jan. 30, WHO waited until March 11 to declare a pandemic.
YouTube made “numerous policy changes” within a short period “to make sure that we stayed abreast of the changes,” Wojcicki said.
It removed thousands of videos about the virus and is aggressively enforcing policies against so-called misinformation, YouTube’s chief product officer, Neil Mohan, told Axios.
For example, it removed videos posted by Brazilian President Jair Bolsanaro’s channel touting hydroxychloroquine, Trump’s favorite anti-malarial drug that has been prescribed by some doctors to treat COVID-19. It also removed videos discussing the theory that 5G causes coronavirus symptoms, according to Epoch Times, a multi-language newspaper founded by a group of Chinese Americans associated with the Falun Gong spiritual movement.
So going against the WHO is YouTube’s line in the sand. But how about the FDA? Can someone post a video advising people to try a medicine that hasn’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration? That’s a question that “gets at the challenge,” Mohan said. “It’s a balancing act. … We are not medical experts ourselves.”
The whole thing stinks of censorship, some social media users suggested.
“This is called CENSORSHIP folks,” author and film producer Tariq Nasheed tweeted.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 70: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin goes solo to discuss the COVID-19 crisis. He talks about the failed leadership of Trump, Andrew Cuomo, CDC Director Robert Redfield, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, and New York Mayor de Blasio.
“They’re slick. They’ve simply pimped COVID to set a new precedent of information control,” another person tweeted.
TV personality Judge Joe Brown offered up a solution. “Solution: petition your Congressman to get these forms of media declared ‘PUBLIC UTILITIES’”, Brown tweeted.
YouTube isn’t the only tech company removing content. Facebook is also removing some pages including ones for organizing protests against harsh quarantine measures.
YouTube is owned by Google, which bought the site in 2006 for $1.65 billion. YouTube operates as one of Google’s subsidiaries.
