YouTube Alters Its Policy To Permit False Claims Regarding Previous US Presidential Elections.

June 14, 2023

YouTube claims that it will no longer remove content that erroneously asserts that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches hampered the 2020 election and other previous U.S. presidential elections.

Claims that it will no longer remove content that erroneously asserts that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches hampered the 2020 election and other previous U.S. presidential elections.

YouTube stated on Friday that it would no longer remove content that erroneously asserts that the 2020 election or other previous presidential elections in the United States were marred by “widespread fraud, errors, or glitches.”

The Google-owned video service announced a month after the 2020 election that it would begin removing posts that falsely claimed widespread voter fraud or errors changed the outcome. The change is a reversal of that statement.

YouTube said in a blog entry that the refreshed strategy was an endeavor to safeguard the capacity to “transparently banter political thoughts, even those that are disputable or in view of disproven suspicions.”

According to the blog post, “While removing this content does curb some misinformation in the current environment, it could also have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech without meaningfully reducing the risk of violence or other real-world harm.”

YouTube will continue to remove content that attempts to deceive voters in the upcoming 2024 election and other upcoming races in the United States and abroad despite the updated policy, which takes effect immediately. According to the company, its other existing regulations against election misinformation have not been altered.

The announcement comes after Twitter, Instagram, and the Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, as well as YouTube and other major social media companies, have been criticized in recent years for not doing more to combat the flood of election-related misinformation and disinformation that spreads across their platforms.