John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise YouTube's announcement that it will remove all videos that make false claims about vaccines and spread misinformation about Covid. I wish to ask YouTube, "Where on earth have you been for the last 18 months?" My God, thanks for waking up to this problem YouTube. YouTube should have taken this position in March 2020 when we saw misinformation about Covid spread like wildfire around the planet last summer. Now all of a sudden, YouTube has woken up to it. At least, it has woken up to it a bit quicker than some of the other major social media platforms. The reason is that, as a platform, YouTube is perhaps more insidious is because it allows grifters and con artists who are putting out the false narrative about vaccines to make money out of the views they are getting on it so it encourages people to be more outrageous and put more information out there because they are making money out of it. This is the real danger with YouTube and this is why we have seen the spread of misinformation. I do not mean to be dramatic when I say this but people are being radicalised online by Covid misinformation. When we talked about radicalisation in recent years, people brought up ISIS - really horrible things in terms of religious radicalisation in the Middle East and other places - but people are being radicalised online by misinformation. It involves vulnerable people and those who are easily led and they are being led down this path by people who are making money from this misinformation. This is the case with YouTube. The more views you get, the more cash you get in your pocket so it makes sense to be more outrageous and go further down that rabbit hole of misinformation. On one level, I commend YouTube on what it has done this morning. Other platforms should follow suit but I would also like to ask YouTube, "Where on earth have you been for the last 18 months?" Talk about closing a door after the horse has bolted. It is outrageous that it is deciding to do it now but I am glad it has woken up with some sort of social conscience 18 months too late.