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YouTube CEO: content against WHO guidance violates policy

In a CNN interview aired April 19, 2020, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said content contradicting World Health Organization COVID-19 recommendations would violate YouTube policy. The statement became a reference point in later debates over platform moderation of pandemic speech. Wojcicki led YouTube from 2014 to 2023 and died of lung cancer on August 9, 2024.

Apr 19, 2020
Whose side it served: Neither party

The policy tied permitted speech to health authorities' guidance rather than to a party, though critics on the right said it fell hardest on dissenters from official COVID policy.

What the record shows

Business Insider reported that Wojcicki told CNN YouTube would remove 'problematic' information, including 'anything that is medically unsubstantiated.' She said anything going against WHO recommendations would be a policy violation. Business Insider noted at the time that some WHO guidance, such as early mask advice, was itself contested and that it was unclear how strictly the rule would be enforced. Wojcicki served as YouTube CEO for about nine years before stepping down in 2023. She died on August 9, 2024, at 56, after living with non-small cell lung cancer for two years, according to her husband.

In their words

“Anything that goes against WHO recommendations would be a violation of our policy”— Susan Wojcicki, YouTube CEO · source
The other side

YouTube framed the policy as a way to limit medically unsupported claims, such as unproven cures, during a public health emergency, when bad information could cause physical harm.

Sources

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