Facebook, YouTube and Twitter struggle with viral Plandemic conspiracy video

Facebook, YouTube and other social networks are having trouble removing a viral video that contains various conspiracy theories on the Internet Corona virus Pandemic that highlights the challenges associated with moderating dangerous content online.

The nearly 26-minute video is part of a series of clips released before a documentary called Plandemic. The filmmakers say that “the scientific and political elite who defraud our global health system are exposed”. It contains exposed claims and makes other accusations without evidence.

Google’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are taking steps to remove the video or reduce its distribution. Despite these efforts, Plandemic videos continue to appear. Some Facebook users have shared the video in public groups but linked to other websites that are not as well known as YouTube or the documentary’s website.

Two simple searches on YouTube on Friday morning found nine copies of the video with a total of 295,000 views. After CNET contacted YouTube with links to the copies, all but one were removed for violating community guidelines.

Of the nine copies, the remaining one is a reaction video that highlights the complication platforms like YouTube, which are faced with moderating posts that contain conspiracy theories. YouTube’s guidelines allow some videos that cite conspiracy theories to stay active when the purpose of the clips is to debunk misinformation. However, this reaction video reproduces the planemic video practically completely and adds a comment that does not clearly expose the allegations. At 42 minutes, checking whether this type of video violates YouTube’s guidelines is more nuanced than simply identifying a cut copy.

The original video shows Judy Mikovits, a controversial former medical researcher who reiterates conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic, including the idea of ​​wearing a mask could make you sick because she could expose you to your own “reactivated coronavirus expressions”. Mikovits’ comments contradict the advice from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that everyone should do so Wear a face cover to protect others if you are infected with the virus that causes COVID-19.

“The suggestion that wearing a mask could make you sick could cause immediate harm. That’s why we’re removing the video,” said a Facebook spokesman in a statement.

Mikovits, a vocal critic from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, also suggested that the virus was developed and said it was not a “natural event”. Scientists widely believe The virus jumped from animals to humansand the US intelligence community took the unusual step of saying publicly that the virus was not “artificially produced or genetically modified. “

The video contains allegations that coronavirus deaths are higher than they should be because doctors are incentivized to say that their patients died from the viruses to receive money from a national health insurance program. There is no evidence of this Case numbers are inflated.

A YouTube spokesman said the company will remove videos that contain “medically unfounded diagnostic advice for COVID-19.” According to BuzzSumo, a social media tool, Plandemic videos totaled 4.7 million views on YouTube on Monday and Tuesday.

Twitter said it blocks the hashtags #PlagueOfCorruption and #Plandemicmovie from its search and trends. Mikovits tweeted a video asking President Donald Trump to end the ban and no longer require people to wear masks, and called the facewear “dangerous.”

Twitter said the tweet did not violate its rules against harmful coronavirus misinformation, but the link to their video was marked as unsafe, which restricted its distribution. The company has also marked a link to the documentary’s website as unsafe. Nevertheless, the Plandemic video was on Twitter late Thursday afternoon. Twitter said a tweet that included the video also didn’t violate its rules, but didn’t explain why.

Keeping the video away from social media has proven to be a game of content moderation for technology companies. Social networks have tried to combat misinformation by directing users to more trustworthy sources such as the CDC and the World Health Organization.

Mikki Willis, the filmmaker behind Plandemic, said in an email that he was not going to object to the video shutdowns, but added that he was “working on a strategy to circumvent the gatekeepers.”