Opinion: YouTube's ban of antivax lies isn't censorship, it's responsible behaviour

YouTube has moved to ban anti-vaccination misinformation. — Getty Images/TNS

YouTube recently announced it will ban content that spreads misinformation regarding not just the coronavirus vaccines but vaccination science in general. It’s an acknowledgment that today’s misplaced conservative resistance to the coronavirus vaccines both feeds and is fed by the broader anti-vaccination movement that was around well before the pandemic.

YouTube and other social media giants must stand up to the inevitable but incorrect cries of censorship from the right and stick with this policy. Individual Americans have a constitutional right to lie — that’s the price of free speech — but private companies aren’t obligated to amplify or provide a platform for those lies.