Google subsidiary takes the risk of incurring the wrath of conservatives.
YouTube dares.
The Alphabet/Google (GOOGL) – Get Alphabet Inc. Report subsidiary has just taken a content decision, touching on one of society’s most divisive issues, that could earn it praise from one side of the political spectrum and wrath from the other.
The nine-member Supreme Court voted 5-4 last month to overturn the 1973 judgment known as Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion. It also voted 6-3 to uphold a Mississippi state law that would ban all abortions after 15 weeks.
The ruling passes the decision on abortion rights to each of the nation’s 50 states, with around half now expected to pass some form of restriction or prohibition.
Fighting Disinformation About Abortion
Almost no big company has criticized the ruling. A number of companies have simply told their employees that they will pay travel costs for anyone needing abortion and reproductive-health access. They vowed to pay to enable their employees to travel to states in which abortion procedures remain legal.
YouTube has just broken its silence on a related issue. The video platform will begin to remove all content disseminating misinformation about abortion, and it will also take down all content about unsafe abortion methods.
The company explains that this decision is part of its policy on misinformation related to health and medical matters.
“Starting today and ramping up over the next few weeks, we will remove content that provides instructions for unsafe abortion methods or promotes false claims about abortion safety under our medical misinformation policies,” the company announced on Twitter on July 21.
“Like all of our policies on health/medical topics, we rely on published guidance from health authorities,” YouTube continued. “We prioritize connecting people to content from authoritative sources on health topics, and we continuously review our policies & products as real world events unfold.”
YouTube’s decision also comes at a time when pro-choice associations and activists are concerned about protecting the privacy of people seeking abortions or of those who would help them, such as doctors or nurses.
Lawmakers have asked the platform to limit search and maps results that direct people looking for abortions to fake clinics.
“NEW: @RepSlotkin and I are leading a group of lawmakers to push on the Google CEO to crack down on manipulative search results that lead to scammy ‘crisis pregnancy centers’,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) tweeted on June 17, with a link to the letter sent to the internet giant. “It’s time for them to limit or label results and ads that lead to fake abortion clinics.”
Eliminating Videos on Self-Managed Abortions
In their letter, the lawmakers cite research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit fighting online misinformation and hate.
Those data show that 11% of results for searches for “abortion clinic near me” and “abortion pill” in states with so-called trigger laws were anti-abortion fake clinics. (Many states passed abortion-restriction laws that were designed to be triggered into effect when Roe v. Wade was reversed.)
“Directing women towards fake clinics that traffic in misinformation and don’t provide comprehensive health services is dangerous to women’s health and undermines the integrity of Google’s search results,” the lawmakers wrote to Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai.
Earlier this month, Google, parent of YouTube, said it would delete a person’s location history after the person visits medical facilities such as abortion clinics, counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, fertility centers, addiction treatment facilities, weight loss clinics, cosmetic surgery clinics and others.
YouTube also seems to respond to a trend: The Supreme Court’s decision has prompted women to be inventive in circumventing the system by doing things like storing morning-after pills. A solidarity network is developing to overcome the closings of clinics and the bans or restrictions in place in 21 states.
On the other hand, the short-video platform TikTok carries videos extolling the virtues of herb concoctions with supposedly abortifacient properties. These can turn out to be dangerous, as reported by Dazed.
YouTube has also decided to set up a panel with information about abortion from the National Library of Medicine:
“We’re also launching an information panel that provides viewers with context and information from local and global health authorities under abortion-related videos and above relevant search results.”
