Seal for reliable sources: Youtube launches health label

For many people, YouTube is also an important source of advice on health matters. A label should help in the future to find and use reliable sources of health more easily. With the new function, the Google service responds to criticism of incorrect or dubious information that can be found on Youtube.

In the future, YouTube will use a label to indicate particularly reliable health information. With the “info area” one wants to enable a better classification of the origin of health-related content on YouTube, announced YouTube manager Garth Graham, Global Head of YouTube Health, in a blog entry.

Germany is the first country to introduce the new YouTube Health concept. “It is very important to us that information on health-related topics is made available from reliable sources,” said Graham. Posts with the Health label should also be highlighted in search results in the health-related content section when users search for health topics. This means that these posts with the label should be able to increase their reach.

To be included in the program, healthcare institutions, educational institutions, public health departments, government organizations and medical journals can apply to be included in the program from October 27, 2022. YouTube Health is then expected to start in early 2023. To select reliable sources of health information, YouTube uses content criteria developed by the US non-governmental organization National Academy of Medicine (NAM). These principles have also been validated by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Overall, YouTube Health offers great potential to help people in Germany find content from reliable health sources on YouTube more easily and be able to use it reliably,” emphasized Graham. The Google service is also responding to criticism of erroneous, inaccurate or dubious health information found on Youtube with the new Health feature. In the summer of 2020, for example, the European Commission pointed out misinformation on YouTube in a campaign to combat disinformation in connection with the corona pandemic.