The Tech Transparency Project published yesterday (01/06) a text demonstrating how the YouTube is failing to prevent the proliferation of fake news about vaccines Covid-19 circulating on the platform. The result of this is the existence of a large amount of conspiracy theory content on the app, which further undermines the population's confidence in the effectiveness of vaccines, something essential for vaccination to be successful, which is the biggest priority for Brazil and the world in 2021.

That was the same conclusion as this one article of the scientific journal Frontiers in October, which even included the participation of Brazilian researchers, had already pointed out the relationship between YouTube, fake news and distrust of vaccines. At the time, the video platform had spoken out about this and even announced a political specifically focused on the problem.

YouTube failed to enforce rules effectively

Unfortunately, however, we can see that the establishment of new rules has not had much practical effect, as numerous videos that violate them have been found by the Tech Transparency Project. Among the videos, there are those that claim a direct link between vaccines and increased deaths, as well as between vaccines and cases of spontaneous abortions. Still other videos even claim that vaccines cause permanent damage to health. In all cases, of course, no proof was provided that these things actually occur.

Most worryingly, however, some videos were even able to be monetized. One of them, for example, claims that vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna contain toxic substances while, ironically, an advertisement from the American Lung Association encourages vaccination, as seen below.

Another thing that can be noticed in the image is the absence of an information panel about Covid-19. According to the project, many similar videos do not have the panel. This makes users more likely to believe fake news about vaccines found on YouTube, precisely because they do not have immediate counterpoints to the lies presented about vaccines.

The importance of combating fake news about vaccines

This becomes even more complicated in cases where facts and truths are taken out of context, or information is given half-heartedly, in order to falsely propagate that vaccines are dangerous. In these cases, strategies vary, but there is usually a partial basis in real data about vaccines, the interpretation of which, on the other hand, requires caution and context above all.

The Tech Transparency Project study cites, as an example, videos that use a database from the US Department of Health and Human Services focused on reports of vaccine side effects, to prove alleged deaths caused by them. But the problem is that the database accepts all types of reports, which can be made without verification, and so far has not found any causal relationship between vaccines and deaths.

This, of course, is opportunely omitted from the videos. And, yes, there are still those fake news stories on YouTube about vaccines that lean completely towards the fake part of the term, for example, absurdities like vaccines magnetizing vaccinated people, but these are less impactful precisely because they are extremely nonsensical.

Just follow your own rules of use.

Ultimately, the damage caused by the continued existence of content with so much misinformation on the platform is undeniable. Although, as previously mentioned, YouTube has taken a stand and committed to eliminating fake news, it still seems to lack severity in enforcing the rules for using the app/site. And this needs to be done urgently, since the fight against Covid-19 with vaccines needs to reach a large portion of the population in order to work, as shown by the Project S do Butantan Institute, a test carried out with the population of Serrana, São Paulo, which caused Covid-19 cases to fall by 80% and deaths by 95% in the city. Vaccines save lives, and fake news causes deaths, so the issue is very serious and urgent.

Image: Polina Tankilevitch/Pexels