WHO to Censor Pro-Lifers

By | 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 16 (C-Fam) In the name of combating “misinformation”, the World Health Organization (WHO) is enlisting the operators of technology platforms and a network of online influencers to spread pro-abortion talking points and censor pro-life content.

At a webinar earlier this week, representatives of the WHO discussed the “Fides” influencer group, which was launched in 2020 to spread content on social media platforms to oppose “anti-vax” narratives during the COVID-19 pandemic.  WHO has an official partnership with TikTok to make sure this content is widely seen.

To be part of this network, influencers have to align their messaging with WHO talking points.  However, these talking points go beyond just correcting health misconceptions.  WHO’s abortion guidelines include a mixture of clinical practices and legal, policy, and human rights positions, and oppose any legal restrictions on abortion or barriers to accessing it.  They have published guidelines explicitly promoting self-administered abortion by pills in restricted contexts as a form of “self-care.”

WHO representatives also discussed how they work directly with tech platforms to change how they present information.  “We tell them what’s top of mind at WHO,” one spokesperson said. “We have changed the way Google Search has worked. We have changed the way YouTube has worked.”

This means boosting WHO-approved information sources in search algorithms.  It also potentially means demoting pro-life resources in those same algorithms.  One participant in the webinar said that “the ones pushing ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ and all these horrible anti-rights things have a very wide tent. Just a reminder that we also need to widen our tent when it comes to pushing for regulation on these things.”

Artificial intelligence was also discussed as a way to promote the WHO’s narratives using the organization’s version of quality control. “We could actually say to them, ‘WHO is willing to certify that this content as being accurate,’ and so that your LLM model or your AI chatbot […] when the topic comes up, will favor our content,” said one participant.

The WHO received pushback when it was promoting a draft pandemic preparedness treaty that would embed anti-misinformation/disinformation measures to prevent so-called “infodemics.” Critics raised concerns about the potential for censorship and bias, noting the WHO’s own repetition of the Chinese government’s talking points that were shown to be misleading.

The WHO’s focus on combating misinformation quickly expanded beyond pandemic-related topics, and “sexual and reproductive health and rights” became one of their main areas of interest.  They have published research that equates objectively false scientific claims with content that they deem to be stigmatizing or which fails to align with a purported medical “consensus” even where none exists.

One participant in the webinar brought up the United States, and how the Trump administration has been critical of the WHO and other UN agencies.  The WHO spokesperson responded that “there’s a lot of noise about what’s coming out of the United States, but the world is very big and the reputation of WHO and their ministries of health is very, very well established and very strong in many, many countries.”

“There’s only a few which are actively trying to erode the credibility of our organization and the UN.”

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