YouTube announced a new policy Thursday that will allow “healthcare information providers” to be certified in an effort to combat misinformation.
“YouTube Health has been working on additional ways to help doctors, nurses, mental health professionals and healthcare information providers to bring high quality health information into the spaces that people visit throughout their day – like their favorite video-sharing app,” Dr. Garth Graham, global head of YouTube Health, said in a blog post. (RELATED: Republican AGs Sue Ex-Biden COVID Czar For Alleged Censorship Efforts)
Certain medical professionals and health information providers will be eligible to apply for specific YouTube Health features, Graham wrote, adding that users of the platform would be able to identify “authoritative sources” to more easily evaluate information on topics surrounding health.
YouTube will let doctors and nurses apply to be labeled as reliable https://t.co/BbgjMdjGEN pic.twitter.com/J499YPcPkL
— The Verge (@verge) October 27, 2022
Those applying for the certification must provide their medical license, follow “best practices” criteria for health information sharing set by the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS), the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and the World Health Organization (WHO), and have an account in good standing with YouTube while meeting other criteria.
YouTube announced guidelines aimed at cracking down on “vaccine misinformation” in September 2021, specifically stating that those who called WHO-approved vaccines “dangerous” or “ineffective” would be targeted. The site’s policies specifically prohibit contradicting the WHO on “vaccine safety, efficacy, and ingredients.”
Prior to issuing the September 2021 guidelines, the video-sharing site issued a seven-day suspension to Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky in August 2021 for saying cloth masks were ineffective at stopping COVID-19, while banning LifeSite News in February 2021 for violating “COVID misinformation” policies.
A Media Research Center study released in February 2022 found 800 instances of censorship by tech companies, including YouTube, from March 17, 2020 to Feb. 3, 2022.
“All channels that apply will be reviewed against these guidelines, and the license of the applying healthcare professional will be verified,” Graham said in the blog post. “In the coming months, eligible channels that have applied through this process will be given a health source information panel that identifies them as a licensed healthcare professional and their videos will appear in relevant search results in health content shelves.”
YouTube did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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