YouTube has stepped up its fight against medical misinformation

A video assuring that garlic cures cancer, another that vitamin C can replace radiotherapy: these dangerous health “tips” will no longer have a place on YouTube, the platform has assured, without convincing misinformation experts who blame a lack of transparency.

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With the explosion of medical misinformation since the COVID-19 crisis, YouTube (owned by Google) has already launched a hunt for anti-vaccine content in 2022, and then for content promoting eating disorders.

A year later, she noted that going further with the onslaught of misinformation about cancer, people diagnosed “often go to the Internet to find out about symptoms and care options and to find a feeling. [d’appartenir à une] community”.

An Internet user who publishes false health information will now see his video deleted, and then, after three iterations, his channel or even his account will be blocked — a decision he can appeal, according to the platform.

Although YouTube defends a long-term approach, it “only abides by its obligations!”, responded AFP sociologist Laurent Cordonier of the Descartes Foundation, a French organization dedicated to information-related issues.

Thus the expert refers to the entry into force from August 25 of the European Regulation, the Digital Services Act, which requires major digital platforms to take measures against false information and other illegal content.

The researcher, according to them, “the French-language YouTube is literally full of ill-informed people”, doubted the effectiveness of the announced measures, noting the proliferation of ads containing false information, especially those viewed in the middle of summer. + Desert people drink very little +” is a work refuting the idea that it is necessary to hydrate during heat waves.

For Angie Hollan, head journalist of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), an AFP member, “YouTube hosts so much content that it’s hard to tell if the quality of information has improved.

Every minute, the platform receives more than 500 hours of new content, and detecting misinformation represents a “huge technical challenge” according to YouTube, especially since older videos must also be displayed under the new rules.

Between January and April 2023, YouTube claims to have removed more than 8.7 million videos, more than 90% of which were identified by artificial intelligence.

“Automatic means” it “completely fails, especially when the video is not in English”, said Spanish journalist Carlos Hernández-Echevarría, of the fact-checking media Maldita, co-author of an open letter to YouTube on the matter in January 2022.

He also criticized the “censorship” implemented by YouTube, which removes videos “without internet users knowing exactly why certain information” is being used while other platforms limit the virality of problematic content or add context to it.

Angie Hollan, the network which receives funding from Google to fight disinformation – as well as other fact-checking organizations including the AFP – also bemoaned the “lack of transparency” on the platform’s moderation criteria. “It’s hard to know what YouTube is really doing,” she laments.

YouTube defends itself by explaining that it does not provide a detailed “notice” to facilitate the work of Internet users who want to circumvent its rules.

In addition to these measures, YouTube has developed new tools to highlight content from health authorities, as well as information messages under videos from hospitals and, in France, to help users identify their source.

In the daily fight against misleading information on health, Clement Basti of the collective L’Extraction, but he said “it is uncomfortable that we entrust to a private company the task of implementing what cannot be said or said, and who is reliable or not. On such complex matters…»

He fears that YouTube’s policy, which is “undoubtedly effective in the short term,” will reinforce conspiracy theorists who will find “other platforms to express themselves” in the long term.