Globaltellblog Always More to Read…
Related Articles
Though the US Supreme Court is yet to have its final say in the matter, YouTube says it will now remove “any piece of content” claiming that the outcome of last month’s presidential election was fraudulent.
Warning users that it will remove content that alleges unfounded voter fraud
The announcement comes amid ongoing criticism of the video platform for what some critics have bemoaned is a hands-off attitude toward misleading or false video, or content that could potentially incite violence.
“Our Community Guidelines prohibit spam, scams, or other manipulated media, coordinated influence operations, and any content that seeks to incite violence,” YouTube pointed out today. “Since September, we’ve terminated over 8000 channels and thousands of harmful and misleading elections-related videos for violating our existing policies. Over 77% of those removed videos were taken down before they had 100 views.”
Tuesday marked the ‘safe harbor’ deadline for US states to certify their election results. Beyond this date, recounts, audits and lawsuits are generally required to have been performed or filed. President Donald Trump is still counting on a major Supreme Court lawsuit to overturn Joe Biden’s win, but to YouTube, the outcome is set in stone and dissent will no longer be allowed.
“We will start removing any piece of content uploaded today (or anytime after) that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 US Presidential election” the video platform announced on Wednesday.
In addition to removing this content, YouTube said it would further boost the reach of “authoritative news” and suppress “problematic misinformation.” The platform has already been doing this since election day, as well as directing viewers to official, government-sanctioned sources of information.
