Faced with the proliferation of health content on social networks, the Order of Physicians (Cnom) presented, on January 16, 2025, a new charter of good practices for physicians who create content. The result of a collaboration with physicians already active online and the YouTube platform, this document aims to establish an ethical and deontological framework for reliable and accessible medical information.
"False medical information can ruin patients' lives," stressed Cnom President François Arnault during the press conference. Health videos generate millions of views, but not all of them are based on solid scientific foundations. Some "self-proclaimed professionals" do not hesitate to promote practices that are not validated, or even dangerous.
Ten Founding Principles
To counter this phenomenon, the charter is structured around ten key principles:
- Produce content that is both educational and scientifically supported.
- Do not promote any unvalidated practice or therapy.
- Do not give personalized medical advice, each patient situation must be assessed individually by a professional in the office.
- Do not engage in covert advertising for its business or health products.
- Clearly identify yourself as a doctor, without violating the rules of ethics (no comparison with other practitioners, no excessive advertising).
- Do not use paid methods to reference its content more effectively.
- Ensure readability and transparency shared information.
- Respect medical confidentiality, avoiding any disclosure of confidential patient information.
- Prioritize public health, by disseminating prevention messages and relaying official recommendations.
- Maintaining a quality dialogue with Internet users, based on respect and education.
A non-binding but necessary framework
Although not legally enforceable, this charter recalls all the obligations already imposed on doctors by the Public Health Code and the Code of Ethics. Signatory practitioners who do not respect it will not be directly sanctioned for the sole reason of having violated it. However, any violation of the ethical rules exposes the physician to possible prosecution by the Order.
The initiative received support from YouTube, which has been at the forefront of the fight against medical misinformation since the Covid-19 pandemic. “Our goal is to support the new generation of doctors who are choosing social media as a direct communication channel,” said Justice Ryst, the platform’s general manager for France.
To doctors who fear too great a restriction on their freedom of expression, Dr. Arthur Lefort, co-author of the charter, responds that the aim is above all to provide a protective framework: "It is not a question of restricting, but of giving credibility to the discourse of doctors in the face of influencers." The charter is therefore intended to be a reference tool for any professional wishing to engage on the networks, while offering a pledge of trust to the public.
Ultimately, this "content creator doctor's charter" is part of a process of transparency and responsibility, at a time when access to medical information is increasingly done on social networks. It thus intends to contribute to better public health, by helping Internet users to distinguish between reliable and misleading information.
