YouTube Says It’s On A Clean-Up Mission To Remove Misinformation About Abortions

YouTube was caught mentioning on Thursday how it has begun a crackdown against all forms of misinformation that’s related to abortions. This includes videos that offer false claims regarding the safety associated with abortion.

The company also plans on going the extra mile in terms of the launch of an entire panel of information that’s specifically related to videos linked to abortion practices.

The news comes after the platform was heavily criticized amid intense pressure from the public regarding such topics. This includes a lack of attention being paid to the spread of increasing amounts of false information, not to mention the growing search results pertaining to such categories as well.

Any content that the app feels is unsafe will also be removed along the way, the company confirmed amid its crackdown operation.

YouTube made the breakthrough announcement via a tweet that boldly declared its plans and the timeframe during which it hoped to achieve its objectives.

It is believed that content will be removed within the next couple of weeks as the firm ramps up its decision to make the platform misinformation free regarding unsafe abortion practices.

Similarly, content that promises safe instructions about abortions will no longer be allowed as per health policies, the company reiterated in its public statement.

Google, which is YouTube’s parent company has come under the alarm in the recent past after it was heavily criticized by the country’s top lawmakers who urged YouTube to act before it was too late.

It also alleged that YouTube was a leading source of information for so many people and that’s why it was necessary that it began acting at a swift pace as people were now relying on it for help when abortion services were no longer being made available.

During the early days of this month, we saw YouTube mention how it was also doing its best at deleting the location history of those users who visited abortion sites and other similar areas, right after the overturning of the historic Roe v. Wade.

YouTube reiterated that the subject of health isn’t an easy one to deal with and that’s why the company relies strictly on health authorities for guidance on this matter. But this isn’t something new because, since day one, we’ve seen YouTube mention how it takes its priorities of publishing content very seriously.

Therefore, zero compromises are made in terms of health topics as the information is first verified from a number of authentic and authoritative sources. Meanwhile, it also makes it a point to review its policies as new or more modern trends in the world of medicine unfold.

But the most interesting part of the tweet by YouTube stated that it plans on releasing a whole information panel that gives users the best and most reliable context pertaining to health authorities.

This panel will reportedly appear below abortion-based content and above areas where such subject-specific searches are conducted.

YouTube even went as far as to delineate the definition of abortions in its tweet while adding links for those users who wish to learn more. It continued to stress how these procedures are only done by experienced health professionals and can’t be administered by one’s own self.

This is definitely not the first time that we’ve seen YouTube take a lead for topics that many deem to be controversial. If you go down memory lane, COVID-19 and its related pandemic were also dealt with similarly.

At the same time, topics related to the US elections were also tackled in a similar manner. However, we do admit that this has to be the first time that we’re seeing the app delete videos as a whole.


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