YouTube will not take away false claims in regards to the 2020 presidential election, the video-sharing platform stated Friday.
In a weblog submit on its company web site, Google-owned Youtube stated that after having eliminated hundreds of movies containing false info, “We acknowledged it was time to reevaluate the results of this coverage in immediately’s modified panorama.” YouTube added that whereas their elimination coverage “does curb some misinformation, it may even have the unintended impact of curbing political speech with out meaningfully decreasing the danger of violence or different real-world hurt.”
“With 2024 campaigns effectively underway, we’ll cease eradicating content material that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred within the 2020 and different previous U.S. presidential elections,” the weblog submit stated. The remainder of YouTube’s content material insurance policies, together with the banning of hate speech and harassment, stay in place.
YouTube instructed Axios, which first broke the information, that it will have extra details about content material moderation for the 2024 election within the coming months.
The choice is a reversal of a coverage that YouTube put in place in December 2020, following a slew of misinformation about that yr’s election. Many social media corporations enacted related initiatives, although because the years have gone on, YouTube remained one of many final manufacturers with any such coverage.
Regardless of over two years having handed because the election, some expressed issues that YouTube’s elimination of this coverage may see misinformation rise on the platform. The corporate’s resolution additionally comes as former President Donald Trump continues to falsely declare that he received the 2020 election.
“[Youtube’s] determined to take the straightforward manner out by giving folks like Donald Trump and his enablers free rein to proceed to lie with out consequence in regards to the 2020 elections,” Julie Millican, vp of the liberal-leaning watchdog Media Issues for America, instructed NPR.