BREAKING: YouTube Says It Will Start Removing Abortion Misinformation in Response to Letter from UltraViolet, Physicians for Reproductive Health, and 200+ medical providers and civil society organizations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, July 21, 2022
CONTACT: Anna Zuccaro | anna@unbendablemedia.com
BREAKING: YouTube Says It Will Start Removing Abortion Misinformation in Response to Letter from UltraViolet, Physicians for Reproductive Health, and 200+ medical providers and civil society organizations
Statement from Shaunna Thomas, co-founder and executive director of UltraViolet, a leading national gender justice organization, on YouTube’s announcement that it will begin to remove abortion disinformation:
“With pregnant people forced to navigate unreasonable restrictions on abortion access in the wake of the Supreme Court decision eliminating Constitutional protections for abortion, the spread of disinformation and misinformation about abortion online is flat out dangerous.
“Pregnant people have always needed accurate information about sexual and reproductive health and now with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a disinformation epidemic must be prevented and stemmed immediately. Promoting untested theories about abortion across social media is not just unsafe–it’s life threatening. YouTube’s decision to start removing abortion-related misinformation and linking to factual information is a critical step in protecting public health and the people who seek answers and solutions to reproductive health options online. We applaud YouTube for listening to the concerns of more than 70 health care providers who called on social media platforms to address abortion disinformation.
“While this is a significant improvement in how to address medical mis- and disinformation on YouTube, more is needed for both YouTube and Google. Criteria for abortion-related medical disinformation must extend to fake pregnancy centers and Google must implement policies to protect user privacy, data, location tracking, and more on both YouTube and other G-suite platforms.
“TikTok, Twitter and Meta must follow YouTube’s lead, and stop the spread of this dangerous misinformation.”
Earlier this month, UltraViolet, in collaboration with Physicians for Reproductive Health, organized an open letter signed by 70+of health care providers and 190+ non-profit organizations urging social media platforms – including YouTube – to “do no harm” and stop the spread of abortion-related disinformation online.
The letter, calls on the platforms to:
- Remove harmful medical disinformation about abortion care, including disinformation on mifepristone and misoprostol, and deplatform accounts that continue to post this harmful content.
- Link to medically accurate information to provide correct, scientifically sound medical information about these prescriptions, similar to what your companies have done in response to / to address COVID disinformation.
- Expand disinformation policies to include bans on medical disinformation, including abortion disinformation.
- Implement these policies across all languages used on your platforms.
READ THE FULL LETTER HERE: https://weareultraviolet.org/medical-disinformation-on-facebook-instagram-tiktok-twitter-and-youtube/
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