YouTube removes video from Sen. Ron Johnson for COVID-19 misinformation
The senator violated the site's medical misinformation policy.
- I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson has been blocked by YouTube for seven days because he shared a video where he spread misinformation about COVID-19 treatment, as reported earlier Friday by Business Insider. Johnson, a critic of what he calls "big tech censorship," used the video to promote two drugs that have not been proven to work effectively in treating COVID-19.
"We removed the video in accordance with our COVID-19 medical misinformation policies, which don't allow content that encourages people to use Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin to treat or prevent the virus," a YouTube spokesperson told CNET in an emailed statement.
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The video-sharing site doesn't allow medical misinformation posing a serious risk of harm to be spread, or content that contradicts global and local health authorities about COVID-19 treatment, transmission and prevention.
Sen. Johnson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
YouTube said in January that it had removed more than 500,000 videos for spreading COVID-19 misinformation, after banning vaccine misinformation in October and blocking accounts like One America Network for spreading such misinformation.