YouTube has announced it will block all anti-vaccine content as part of a fresh push to tackle misinformation and fake news on the video platform.

In a blog post on 29th September, the Google-owned firm confirmed that content claiming vaccines are “dangerous and cause chronic health effects” will be prohibited from the platform.

Popular anti-vaccine channels and activists will also be banned from YouTube as part of the policy update, which builds on long-established community guidelines on health misinformation.

“Today, we’re expanding our medical misinformation policies on YouTube with new guidelines on currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed to be safe and effective by local health authorities and the WHO,” YouTube confirmed in a statement.

“Specifically, content that falsely alleges that approved vaccines are dangerous and cause chronic health effects, claims that vaccines do not reduce transmission or contraction of disease, or contains misinformation on the substances contained in vaccines will be removed,” the firm added.

While the policy update specifically targets Covid-related vaccine misinformation, YouTube also revealed the changes will apply to broader vaccine-related content.

“Our policies not only cover specific routine immunisations like for measles or Hepatitis B, but also apply to general statements about vaccines,” the firm said in a blog post.

This means that content which claims vaccines cause autism, infertility or cancer will fall under the new guidelines, along with speculative content on the use of vaccines to “track those who receive them”.

The move follows a period of intense criticism over the spread of vaccine-related misinformation on social media. Alongside Facebook and Twitter, YouTube has been forced to contend with a marked increase in misinformation and conspiratorial claims on the origins of the coronavirus and vaccine safety.

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, YouTube says it has reviewed its policies on misinformation and fake news, working closely with authorities to curate new guidelines on medical misinformation.

Notably, in the last year, YouTube says it has removed more than 130,000 videos from the platform for violating its guidelines on Covid vaccines.

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On Tuesday, RT’s German language YouTube channels were removed by the firm after the broadcaster was found to have breached its Covid-19 misinformation policies.

Initially, RT DE had been issued with a suspension for breaching the platform’s coronavirus misinformation guidelines. However, using a second channel, Der Fehlende Part, the broadcaster then continued to circulate content which violated guidelines.

The move prompted a backlash from the Russian government, which described the decision to ban RT DE as “censorship”.

Russia’s media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, insisted that YouTube restore the channels “as soon as possible” or risk being blocked by internet service providers inside Russia – a tactic previously employed by the Russian government.

In March this year, access to Twitter was restricted in Russia after the social media site failed to comply with a Roskomnadzor request to remove content.