YouTube to Certify Health Care Providers’ Channels to Curb Misinformation

YouTube stated on Thursday that medical doctors, nurses and different well being care professionals can apply to have their YouTube channels licensed, in a push to restrict misinformation on the positioning. The change will permit viewers to extra simply entry movies containing “high-quality health information,” YouTube stated. “This is a big step towards helping people more easily find and connect with content that comes from the extraordinary community of healthcare professionals on YouTube,” the service added.

In addition to medical doctors and nurses, psychological well being professionals and healthcare info suppliers may apply for the YouTube verification that permits their movies to be noticed simply by customers.

“This new step will allow us to expand to include high quality information from a wider group of healthcare channels,” the corporate stated.

Some 90 % of Americans use social media to seek for well being info, in line with the National Academy of Medicine.

YouTube confronted criticism final 12 months for internet hosting movies that criticised COVID-19 vaccines or contradicted well being steering from the World Health Organization or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In response, in September 2021, it banned deceptive and inaccurate content material about vaccines.

It additionally launched a restricted program that allowed movies by public well being departments, hospitals and governments, amongst different entities, to have labels letting customers know they’re authoritative.

It is that program that’s now being broadened.

To entry this system, healthcare professionals should supply proof of their skilled licenses, comply with greatest practices for sharing science-based well being info and have a channel in good standing on YouTube, the corporate stated.

YouTube, headquartered in San Bruno, California, has a attain of some two billion month-to-month energetic customers.