YouTube is cracking down on videos and creators sharing misinformation about COVID vaccinesExBulletin

Leila Fadell, Host:

YouTube, a video streaming platform, announced today that it will expand its ban on false alarms for vaccines. The company now states that all false information about approved vaccines will be removed from the platform. NPR scientific correspondent Geoff Brumfiel is tracking false information about the vaccine and is now joining us to discuss what this ban means. Hey, Jeff.

GEOFF BRUMFIEL, Byline: Hello, Leila.

FADEL: So let’s start with today’s announcement. What is YouTube actually doing here?

BRUMFIEL: So it’s basically expanding what it defines as a false alarm for a vaccine. To date, many social media platforms have actually focused on the COVID-19 vaccine. But, of course, the anti-vaccine movement has actually existed decades before COVID. And before COVID, there was a great deal of emphasis on stopping childhood vaccination against measles and chickenpox. Now, YouTube says it has noticed more false claims about these childhood vaccinations in the last few months, so it was decided that such types of videos should also be removed. By the way, YouTube’s parent company, Google, is a financial supporter of NPR.

FADEL: So what does this really mean?

BRUMFIEL: Well, some of the biggest promoters of vaccine false alarms have been completely kicked out of YouTube. In particular, Robert F. Kennedy and a gentleman named Joseph Mercola, who runs a multi-million dollar natural supplement business. Junior has been a fairly major anti-vaccine activist for many years. The Digital Anti-Hate Center, which tracks false information about vaccines, puts these two at the top of a dozen disinformation, which is a list of the worst spreaders of these bad vaccines. And the group, the Digital Hate Countermeasures Center, announced that as a result of YouTube’s move here, about 500,000 subscribers will no longer see vaccine protection content.

FADEL: Sounds pretty good news for anyone concerned about the public release of scientifically accurate information about vaccines, doesn’t it?

BRUMFIEL: Yeah, yeah. So I talked to Imran Ahmed. He is the CEO of the center. And he says he really praises the YouTube announcement.

IMRAN AHMED: It’s the right moral decision to take as a company that benefits from content.

BRUMFIEL: And beyond that, he hopes this will have a real impact on those who lost YouTube today as a platform.

AHMED: Spreading your message, increasing your audience and, more importantly, your ability to make money is compromised.

BRUMFIEL: But he also says this is really far from the end of the whole situation. Vaccine opponents still have many ways to disseminate false information.

Fadell: How is that?

BRUMFIEL: Well, while YouTube is taking action, while YouTube is taking action today, the Center for Countering Digital Hatred says Facebook and Instagram are still hosting fairly large accounts. They estimate that Disinformation Dozen has millions of followers on these two platforms. And there are many other loosely regulated platforms such as Gab, Parler and Telegram. And these people are still finding an audience there.

But even bigger outlets may be right-wing media. So, for example, Melcola recently appeared on a show by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. He made many false claims about vaccines there. And both Joseph Mercola and RFK Jr. said in a statement to the NPR that they would continue to spread the message as much as possible. For them, this is really a matter of freedom of speech.

FADEL: So what’s the consequence of vaccine opponents becoming able to thrive in these other spaces?

BRUMFIEL: Imran Ahmed and others say it’s much better than allowing these people to keep getting a really huge number of viewers on major platforms like YouTube. But I think something else is happening. It means that those who spend their time in these alternative spaces on the Internet, especially in the politically conservative spaces of the Internet, are being attacked by more than ever. And the result is real. According to Kaiser polls, the Democratic Party is currently the most vaccinated group in the United States, and the Republican Party is the penultimate in front of the uninsured. Therefore, the situation has arisen in which the voting method is most likely to determine whether or not you are vaccinated.

FADEL: Thanks to Geoff Brumfiel, NPR’s scientific correspondent.

BRUMFIEL: Thank you.

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