Disinformation has become one of the big problems of the internet, and it is necessary for the big platforms to get involved to fight it. To contribute in this sense, Youtube announced a “long-term vision for medical misinformation policies” focusing on cancer, though not exclusively.

The Google-owned video platform’s update left little room for interpretation, saying it was an “update on how YouTube is thinking about the future of its medical misinformation policy, including dispelling cancer misinformation“. In short, it seems that those responsible will take seriously the fulfillment of these words as expressed.

YouTube noted that it has recently made efforts to make the platform a destination for quality health content creators, and that throughout its history it has learned “critical lessons about developing online community principles with guidance from local and global health authorities on topics that pose serious risks in the real world, such as misinformation about COVID-19, vaccines, reproductive health, harmful substances, and more.

At this point, it doesn’t hurt to recall the problems that many serious content creators had when trying to report COVID-19, even if what they said was backed up by official information at the time. If YouTube resumes its policy of going against everything, it could end up giving a lot of fodder to conspiracy theorists, and thus to the media and disinformation channels.

The procedure that the platform intends to apply consists of the following: “To determine whether a condition, treatment or substance falls within the scope of our medical misinformation policy, we evaluate whether it is associated with a high risk to public health, publicly available from health authorities throughout world and if it is generally susceptible to misinformation.

YouTube will remove any content with misinformation that conflicts with health authorities in terms of prevention and transmission on specific health conditions and the safety and efficacy of approved vaccines; any misinformation content that contradicts health authorities regarding the treatment of specific medical conditionsincluding promoting harmful substances or practices; as well as content based on denying the existence of specific medical conditionssuch as information that denies the existence of people who have died of COVID-19.

Regarding cancer, YouTube said that: “Starting today and gradually over the coming weeks, we will begin removing content that promotes cancer treatments that have been shown to be harmful or ineffective, or content that discourages viewers from seeking professional medical care.” all with the intention that when patients turn to the platform, they “can easily find high-quality content from trusted health sources.”

In addition to removing erroneous content and as part of efforts to increase the quality of the content offered (at least among the most visible), the platform “publishes a list of interesting and informative cancer-related videos from various authoritative sources”. In addition, he is working with the Mayo Clinic to create new video content to share information about the various conditions that cancer encompasses.

The change in policy regarding medical misinformation was signed by Dr. Garth Graham, director and global director of YouTube Healthcare and Public Health Partnerships, and Matt Halprin, vice president and global director of trust and safety. The move is not the first of its kind, as YouTube took down more than a million videos of misinformation related to COVID-19 two years ago. We’ll see if this new movement ends up actually supporting quality content.