The campaign effort, which is led by Full Fact, alleges that the video-sharing platform is particularly rife with Covid-19 misinformation that encourages people to boycott vaccinations or treat the virus with bogus cures. YouTube has also been used to promote false cures for cancer for a number of years.

The issue is not limited to YouTube: a report from June 2020, soon after the pandemic began, estimated that 90.6 per cent of reported misinformation relating to Covid-19 remained visible online with no warnings attached.

“YouTube has recently framed discussions about disinformation as a false choice between deleting or not deleting content, avoiding the possibility of surfacing fact-checked information, which has been found to be more effective than deleting content and also maintains freedom of expression while mitigating risks of harm to life, health, safety and democratic processes,” Full Fact said.

The body urged YouTube to create a roadmap of policy...