YouTube Dumps Policy Against 2020 US Election Gossip

Posted by: lukwago J in Tech June 3, 2023

Following an announcement from YouTube, a Google owned platform on Friday said that it will stop removing content that falsely claims US presidential election was full of fraud and errors a decision that attracted criticism from anti misinformation advocates.

However this announcement from YouTube is a prominent departure from its policy initiated in December 2020 attempted to curb false claims about the 2020 elections of most of these being pushed by the then President Donald Trump.

“ The ability to openly debate political ideas, even those that are controversial or based on disproven assumptions is core to a functioning democratic society especially in the midst of election season,”YouTube said in a blog post.

“ We will stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors that occurred in the 2020 and other past US presidential elections.”

Meanwhile the updated policy goes into effect immediately and has been introduced at the time tech platforms are grappling with key issue of combating misinformation without curtailing free speech.

Consequently YouTube’s policy change has for got thumbs down from many.

“ YouTube is dead wrong in its assertion that removing false election content curtails political speech without meaningful reducing real world harms,” said Nora Benavidez from the Non partisan group free press.

In addition the platform Underlines that its other rules against election misinformation remain unchanged. These include its prohibition of content which deceives people or incites people to make them create interference with democratic processes.

“ YouTube was one of the last major social media platform to keep in place a policy attempting to curb 2020 election misinformation, said Julia Millican the vice president of the left leaning watchdog Media Matters.

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