YouTube will no longer remove false claims about the 2020 presidential election, the video-sharing platform said Friday.
In a blog post on its corporate website, Google-owned Youtube said that after having removed thousands of videos containing false information, "We recognized it was time to reevaluate the effects of this policy in today's changed landscape." YouTube added that while their removal policy "does curb some misinformation, it could also have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech without meaningfully reducing the risk of violence or other real-world harm."
"With 2024 campaigns well underway, we will stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past U.S. presidential elections," the blog post said. The rest of YouTube's content policies, including the banning of hate speech and harassment, remain in place.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
YouTube told Axios, which first broke the news, that it would have more information about content moderation for the 2024 election in the coming months.
The decision is a reversal of a policy that YouTube put in place in December 2020, following a slew of misinformation about that year's election. Many social media companies enacted similar initiatives, though as the years have gone on, YouTube remained one of the last brands with this type of policy.
Despite over two years having passed since the election, some expressed concerns that YouTube's removal of this policy could see misinformation rise on the platform. The company's decision also comes as former President Donald Trump continues to falsely claim that he won the 2020 election.
"[Youtube's] decided to take the easy way out by giving people like Donald Trump and his enablers free rein to continue to lie without consequence about the 2020 elections," Julie Millican, vice president of the liberal-leaning watchdog Media Matters for America, told NPR.
-
The return of 'Wednesday,' an 'Alien' prequel and a dramatic retelling of the Amanda Knox trial all happening in August TVthe week recommends This month's new television releases include 'Alien: Earth,' 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox' and a new season of 'Wednesday'
-
How does a 401(k) hardship withdrawal work and is it smart to take one?the explainer More Americans than ever are resorting to this option in a pinch
-
What does occupying Gaza accomplish for Israel?Talking Points Risking a 'strategic dead-end' in fight against Hamas
-
Nvidia hits $4 trillion milestoneSpeed Read The success of the chipmaker has been buoyed by demand for artificial intelligence
-
X CEO Yaccarino quits after two yearsSpeed Read Elon Musk hired Linda Yaccarino to run X in 2023
-
Musk chatbot Grok praises Hitler on XSpeed Read Grok made antisemitic comments and referred to itself as 'MechaHitler'
-
Disney, Universal sue AI firm over 'plagiarism'Speed Read The studios say that Midjourney copied characters from their most famous franchises
-
Amazon launches 1st Kuiper internet satellitesSpeed Read The battle of billionaires continues in space
-
Test flight of orbital rocket from Europe explodesSpeed Read Isar Aerospace conducted the first test flight of the Spectrum orbital rocket, which crashed after takeoff
-
Apple pledges $500B in US spending over 4 yearsSpeed Read This is a win for Trump, who has pushed to move manufacturing back to the US
-
Microsoft unveils quantum computing breakthroughSpeed Read Researchers say this advance could lead to faster and more powerful computers
