YouTube to stop removing misinformation on past US Presidential elections, here’s why – Times of India

YouTube, in 2020, introduced a policy under which it decided to remove content that alleged voter fraud which influenced the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election. The Google-owned platform has now announced that it will now stop removing such content for all past Presidential elections.
“We will stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past US Presidential elections,” the company said in a blog post. The new policy went into effect on June 2.
Why YouTube will not remove misinformation content
According to YouTube, it removed “tens of thousands” of videos in two years but now recognised “it was time to reevaluate the effects of this policy in today’s changed landscape.”

The company said “in the current environment”, removing content does curb some misinformation but “it could also have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech without meaningfully reducing the risk of violence or other real-world harm.”
Here’s what is not changing
YouTube noted that it will continue to ensure that people can see news and information about elections from authoritative sources prominently in search and recommendations. These authoritative sources include news outlets that represent the most viewed and most recommended election videos on YouTube.

YouTube is also not making any changes to its election misinformation policies, including those that disallow content aiming to mislead voters about the time, place, means, or eligibility requirements for voting.
These policies also cover areas where content on YouTube makes “false claims that could materially discourage voting, including those disputing the validity of voting by mail; and content that encourages others to interfere with democratic processes.”
YouTube also claimed that its 2020 election information panels, with relevant context from voting locations, to live election results, were collectively shown over 4.5 billion times.