By Sayer Ji
The World Health Organization and YouTube merge into a dystopian one-size-fits-all medical misinformation paradigm where “prevention” equals vaccination or mammography, but step away from your vitamin cabinet or using food as medicine because that’s no longer acceptable according to their new policies.
On August 15th, YouTube announced it is adopting WHO’s medical misinformation policies, ushering in a “one world, one narrative” digital governance structure which will render free speech, and by implication – informed medical choice – non-existent for users on its already heavily censorship prone platform.
From this point onward, any content that contradicts or diverges from the WHO’s official health guidance may be deemed “harmful content” in violation of YouTube’s “Community Guidelines” and will now be subject to censorship or removal.
In a post titled, “A long term vision for YouTube’s medical misinformation policies,” YouTube shared its “thinking about the future of medical misinformation policies, including removing cancer misinformation.”
YouTube stated:
Moving forward, YouTube will streamline dozens of our existing medical misinformation guidelines to fall under three categories – Prevention, Treatment, and Denial. These policies will apply to specific health conditions, treatments, and substances where content contradicts local health authorities or the World Health Organization (WHO).
Organized into a tripartite framework, it proposed the following guidelines:
Prevention misinformation: We will remove content that contradicts health authority guidance on the prevention and transmission of specific health conditions, and on the safety and efficacy of approved vaccines. For example, this encompasses content that promotes a harmful substance for disease prevention.
Treatment misinformation: We will remove content that contradicts health authority guidance on treatments for specific health conditions, including promoting specific harmful substances or practices. Examples include content that encourages unproven remedies in place of seeking medical attention for specific conditions, like promoting caesium chloride as a treatment for cancer.
Denial misinformation: We will remove content that disputes the existence of specific health conditions. This covers content that denies people have died from COVID-19.
YouTube’s medical misinformation guidelines include not just topics relevant to vaccination, but explicitly disallow any “content that promotes information that contradicts health authority guidance on the prevention or transmission of specific health conditions.” Unless a substance or therapeutic modality has been officially approved by either local health authorities or the WHO as “safe and effective,” it will be forbidden to be discussed on YouTube from now on.
YouTube specifically mentions the following examples of censorable content under subsection “harmful substances & practices as prevention methods”:
Promotion of the following substances and treatments that present an inherent risk of severe bodily harm or death:
Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS)
Black Salve
Turpentine
B17/amygdalin/peach or apricot seeds
High-grade hydrogen peroxide
Chelation therapy to treat autism
Ozone therapy
Gasoline, diesel and kerosene
Content that promotes use of Ivermectin or Hydroxychloroquine for the prevention of COVID-19.
Their vaccine-specific guidance includes censorship of any of the following topics:
Vaccine safety: Content alleging that vaccines cause chronic side effects, such as cancer or paralysis, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities.
Examples:
Claims that the MMR vaccine causes autism.
Claims that any vaccine causes contraction of COVID-19.
Claims that vaccines are part of a depopulation agenda.
Claims that the flu vaccine causes chronic side effects such as infertility, or causes contraction of COVID-19.