YouTube’s Updated Health Policy: Combatting Cancer Misinformation Head-On

YouTube has unveiled a comprehensive policy plan to tackle medical misinformation, with a particular focus on cancer-related content. The platform’s new guidelines will address three main categories: prevent, treatment, and denial misinformation. Under these categories, YouTube aims to remove videos that oppose trusted health authority guidelines, promote unproven medical treatments, or make false claims about medical conditions.

The “prevent” category involves reviewing and removing content that contradicts vaccine safety and efficacy guidelines set out by reputable health authorities. The “treatment” category will target videos containing misinformation about treating medical conditions, including unverified remedies. The “denial” category seeks to eliminate content that makes false claims, such as denying the impact of COVID-19 on human lives.

The decision to categorize content comes from an evaluation of its association with high public health risks, alignment with global health authority guidelines, and susceptibility to misinformation. Dr. Garth Graham, YouTube’s Director and Global Head of Healthcare and Public Health Partnerships, and Matt Halprin, its VP and Global Head of Trust and Safety, outlined these new policies in a joint release.

YouTube’s efforts to address medical misinformation include immediate removal of cancer-related videos that violate these policies. The platform plans to intensify these actions in the upcoming weeks. As an example, videos claiming that garlic cures cancer will be taken down. Additionally, YouTube is collaborating with Mayo Clinic to create scientifically accurate and informative videos about cancer.

This initiative follows YouTube’s announcement two months ago that it would no longer remove content advancing false claims about past US presidential elections to preserve political speech. The new policy signifies a selective approach to misinformation, allowing some false health-related content to remain if it serves public interest or contextually appropriate. In some cases, such content will be age-restricted to provide accurate information while maintaining viewer access.