Anti-vaxxers outside the US still have channels with hundreds of thousands of subscribers despite YouTube's ban
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- YouTube announced a blanket ban on anti-vaccine misinformation, and took down some big accounts.
- But, analysts and reporters noted, many anti-vaccine influencers are still active on the site.
- Platforms have been criticized for a piecemeal and often US-centric approach to enforcing policies.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Anti-vaccination influencers with hundreds of thousands of subscribers appear to have evaded its worldwide ban on vaccine misinformation that YouTube announced Wednesday.
The policy change Wednesday saw YouTube remove the channels of three of the most influential anti-vaxxers on the CCDH list: Joseph Mercola, Robert F Kennedy Jr, and Erin Elizabeth, who between them had 511,000 subscribers.
All three are Americans. But analysts and media outlets focused on other countries said that influential anti-vaccine activists, including foreign and non-English language activists, still have a home on the platform.
-Marc-André Argentino (@_MAArgentino) September 29, 2021
They include Clemens Arvay, a German biologist with 123,000 subscribers, whom German fact checking site Correctiv has reported spread misinformation about mRNA vaccines.
The Australian newspaper reported that many Australian anti-vaccine influencers also appeared not to have been impacted by the ban.
Insider has contacted YouTube to ask why some accounts were not taken down.
Two prominent US accounts were also still live on Thursday, drawing criticism from campaigners.
Imran Ahmed, CEO of UK charity The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), pointed to the continued presence on the platform of several two people from its influential "Disinformation Dozen" list.
Theya are Christiane Northrup (72,600 subscribers) and Kelly Brogan (23,900 subscribers).
YouTube told Insider's Kieran Press-Reynolds on Wednesday that it was investigating Northrup and Brogan's accounts. Insider has contacted Arvay, Brogan and Northrup for comment.
Ahmed said the ban was "good news but not mission accomplished," given its implementation.
Ahmed singled out Facebook for harsher criticism, since it still hosts many of those that YouTube and other platforms banned.
"Facebook is now isolated as the primary Big Tech superspreader of misinformation about vaccines. The ball is now in their court," he said.
Insider has contacted Facebook for comment.
Mercola responded to the YouTube ban with a statement delivered via his Facebook account, claiming to have been censored.
Kennedy Jr struck a similar tone, writing in a statement to The Washington Post that "there is no instance in history when censorship and secrecy has advanced either democracy or public health."
YouTube's ban comes amid continued vaccine hesitancy among millions in the US, which has impacted the economic recovery and led the Biden administration to impose vaccine mandates for large businesses and federal government workers.
Big tech companies have long been criticised for a slow and piecemeal approach to combatting anti-vaccine misinformation.
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