A flu vaccine being prepared in Las Rozas, Spain on Oct. 14, 2020.Photo: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez (Getty Images)
YouTube announced on Wednesday that it will now be extending current rules about lies, propaganda, and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic to include misinformation about coronavirus vaccines.
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Per Reuters, the video giant now says it will prohibit content about coronavirus vaccines that “[contradicts] expert consensus from local health authorities or the [World Health Organization]”—such as bogus claims the vaccine is a pretext to stick people with tracking chips or that it will kill recipients and/or secretly sterilize them. The company also told Reuters that it would limit the spread of content that borders on violating the rules, though it didn’t elaborate on how it would do that.
Google’s rules already covered topics relating to treatment, prevention, diagnostics, and transmission of the virus, though the previous rules only specifically mentioned vaccines in the context of false claims that one “is available or that there’s a guaranteed cure.”
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“A COVID-19 vaccine may be imminent, therefore we’re ensuring we have the right policies in place to be able to remove misinformation related to a COVID-19 vaccine,” YouTube spokesperson Farshad Shadloo told The Verge.
A study released in September by the Oxford Research Institute and Reuters Institute, partially covering the period of October 2019 and June 2020, found that coronavirus misinformation videos on YouTube had been shared more than 20 million times on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. That outranked CNN, ABC News, BBC, Fox News, and Al Jazeera’s combined reach on those sites over the same period (15 million). The researchers were only able to identify 8,105 videos removed by YouTube containing “covid-related misinformation” in that time period, which was less than 1% of all coronavirus videos.
Interestingly, the researchers also found strong evidence the primary driver of viral coronavirus videos on YouTube was Facebook, not subscribers to the YouTube channels themselves. This also potentially helps that content circumvent YouTube’s community standards enforcement, which is highly reliant on user reports; Facebook has implemented some loophole-laden rules on anti-vax content in ads but does not have rules against organic or unpaid anti-vax posts. From the study:
Misinformation videos shared on Facebook generated a total of around 11,000 reactions (likes, comments or shares), before being deleted by YouTube… The Oxford researchers also found that out of the 8,105 misinformation videos shared on Facebook between October 2019 and June 2020, only 55 videos had warning labels attached to them by third party fact checkers, less than 1% of all misinformation videos. This failure of fact-checking helped Covid-related misinformation videos spread on Facebook and find a large audience.
Oxford researchers observed that despite YouTube’s investment in containing the spread of misinformation, it still took YouTube on average 41 days to remove Covid-related videos with false information. Misinformation videos were viewed on average 150,000 times, before they were deleted by YouTube.
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YouTube has also been a hub for anti-vax content more generally. While research last year (before the pandemic) found it was on the decline, the anti-vax movement is far from forced off the site. A University of Pennsylvania Annenberg Public Policy Center study in February unsurprisingly found that those who relied on traditional media outlets to learn about vaccines were less likely to believe in anti-vax claims than those who did on social media. A recent Pew Survey found that some 26% of U.S. adults get news on YouTube and that the content they are consuming is more likely to be laden with conspiracy info.
Producers and consumers of misinformation are adept at evading crackdowns. According to Wired, YouTube’s internal teams tasked with hunting down and eliminating videos with false claims about the virus found that its recommendation system—which had been successfully tweaked to promote significantly less conspiracy content in 2019—was becoming increasingly less important to driving large amounts of traffic to false claims about the coronavirus. Instead, they had noticed a major uptick in the number of videos which were uploaded and quickly promoted off-site via a “mix of organic link-sharing and astroturfed, bot-propelled promotion” on other sites like Facebook and Reddit.
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YouTube told the Telegraph in September that the Oxford and Reuters study used data that was out of date. A spokesperson told the Guardian on Wednesday the company has removed more than 200,000 videos since early February, though many of them could have been re-uploads, automatically generated, or otherwise posted in corners where they had little chance of going viral in the first place.
Another recent study by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard found that social media was secondary to the spread of conspiracy theories about voting by mail, with the main driver being fake claims by Donald Trump and Republican allies that were then amplified by coverage in the traditional media. This appears to match findings by Oxford and Reuters researchers in April, who found prominent public figures made just 20% of claims in a sample of 225 statements rated false by fact checkers, but generated 69% of social media engagement.
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Platforms including YouTube have had some success limiting the spread of some misinformation efforts, such as a sequel to the infamous Plandemic video that racked up more than 8 million views in May (the sequel’s release, however, was announced in advance). In September, YouTube moved to delete clips from a Hoover Institution interview with White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Scott Atlas, who has sowed doubt about the effectiveness of social distancing and wink-wink, nudge-nudged the Trump administration toward a dangerous “herd immunity” strategy.
According to the Guardian, YouTube says it will announce more steps it is taking to limit the spread of misinformation about vaccines on its site in the coming weeks.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
