YouTube announced today on Twitter that it would be content removal that includes instructions for unsafe abortion methods or misrepresentations about abortion safety.
Claims will be assessed against existing company resources misinformation policythat prohibits manipulated or misattributed content, promotes “harmful remedies, remedies or substances” or “contradicts[s] expert consensus on certain safe medical practices.
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“Like all of our policies on health/medical topics, we rely on guidelines published by health authorities,” YouTube said in a tweet. “We prioritize connecting people to content from authoritative sources on health topics, and we continually revise our policies and products as real-world events unfold.”
In order to provide users with access to authoritative sources, the platform will also start displaying informational panels under certain abortion-related videos or search results. These panels, which he also put up for topics like COVID-19, provide context and information from local and global health authorities.
YouTube has come under fire for its handling of abortion-related content as recently as April 2022, when a nearly 40-minute video billed as an investigative documentary from key LaBrant family creators compared abortion to the horrors of the Holocaust. The video, which was made in conjunction with anti-abortion group Live Action and included interviews with only doctors and pro-life women, was criticized for its one-sided portrayal of the issue to the more than 13.1 million family subscribers.
Although YouTube demonetized the video, it is still available on the site and, with 4.3 million views, is the platform’s 15th most-watched abortion video according to a YouTube search conducted today. Currently, an information panel below quoting the National Library of Medicine states, “An abortion is a procedure to terminate a pregnancy. It uses medicine or surgery to remove the embryo or fetus and placenta from the uterus. The procedure is performed by a licensed professional. healthcare professional.”
Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube Told Fortune in June that her personal view on abortion was that “women should have a choice when they become mothers…reproductive rights are human rights.” But when it comes to YouTube and “running a company that’s really focused on free speech, we want to make sure that we allow for a wide range of opinions, that everyone has the right to express their point of view. view provided you meet our community guidelines.”
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