YouTube Quietly Changes Covid Misinfo Policy on Masks, Vaccines
Any Redress for the Thousands Censored by YouTube for Speaking Truth?
(Note: I co-wrote an article on this same topic for MRC Free Speech America. While this article is much more detailed and contains additional information, my access to the April 2022 YouTube Covid misinfo policy is due to MRC.)
Google-owned YouTube’s Covid-19 medical misinformation policy was one of the more infamous and detailed instances of an online platform’s censorship of free speech—and accurate, scientific information—in favor of state-sanctioned lies and half-truths. But what is fascinating is that YouTube has quietly updated its policy in significant ways since April 2022, just four months ago.
The original policy had 71 bullet points and sentences restricting content, while the updated policy has 64. Any restrictions on content about masking and social distancing have been removed, while several restrictions on content about the Covid vaccines have been edited.
Removed restrictions include, “Claims that wearing a mask is dangerous or causes negative physical health effects,” “Claims that masks do not play a role in preventing the contraction or transmission of COVID-19,” “Claims that wearing a mask gives you COVID-19,” and bans on critiques of “Social distancing and self isolation guidelines.” YouTube also removed its ban on “Claims that the virus no longer exists or that the pandemic is over.” Perhaps the most significant of all was the removal of the ban on “Claims that COVID-19 vaccines are not effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19.”
Only one new restriction was apparently added: “Claims that the flu is more contagious than COVID-19.”
Changed content includes:
“Original: Claims that COVID-19 vaccines do not reduce risk of contracting COVID-19
New: Claims that COVID-19 vaccines do not reduce risk of serious illness or death [note that YouTube is tacitly admitting the glaringly obvious, that the vaxxed can contract Covid]
Original: Claims that the symptoms, death rates, or contagiousness of COVID-19 are less severe or equally as severe as the common cold or seasonal flu
New: Claims that the death rate of COVID-19 is equal to or less than that of the common cold or seasonal flu
Claims that COVID-19 is equal to or less transmissible than the common cold or seasonal flu”
There is, of course, the overwhelming scientific evidence that the Covid vaccines are ineffective and dangerous, even deadly to hundreds of thousands, which YouTube continues to ignore. But even the insufficient edits YouTube made to its draconian policy are telling.
It is significant to note that even in April YouTube banned most of these critiques for “approved COVID-19 vaccines[s].” Yet in America at least the COVID-19 vaccines widely available and administered (for most people the only vaccines available), including the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the Moderna vaccine, were not approved by the FDA, they were only emergency use authorized. So was YouTube allowing users to critique those vaccines on the platform? The answer is no.
While testifying at an Oct. 2021 Senate hearing, YouTube Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy Leslie Miller boasted that YouTube had removed over 1 million videos with alleged “COVID misinfo,” including over 130,000 videos on “Covid vaccine misinfo.” So what now? Will YouTube be apologizing? Considering the platform apparently didn’t even announce publicly that it was changing its policies I would guess that’s a big no. All those people who were wrongly censored for challenging what we knew to be false will have no redress. In true Orwellian style, YouTube will just pretend it was never wrong.
There are also changes that are small enough that one wonders if they mean anything, but still enough of a change that they are worth mentioning:
“Original: Claims that Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine are safe to use in the treatment [of] COVID-19
New: Claims that Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine are safe to use in the prevention of COVID-19.”
I would say that this is an important change, with YouTube indirectly admitting that Hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin can treat Covid-19, except that the new policy still bans, “Claims that Hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment for COVID-19” and “Categorical claims that Ivermectin is an effective treatment for COVID-19.” In any case, YouTube is being unscientific—there are literally hundreds of studies proving how effective ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine are in treating Covid.
There’s also seeming grammar edits such as the change from “Claims that the COVID-19 vaccine will be used as a means of population reduction,” to “Claims that COVID-19 vaccines are a means of population reduction.”
After over a year of crushing constitutional free speech with lies, YouTube has an awful lot of explaining to do.
Laugh du Jour - For California residents, et al: I Wish I Could Leave California Now -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApfBvkql0lI