In an official post, YouTube announced that it will take down videos that interfere with the US elections. Notably, YouTube took this decision to curb misleading information on voting.
Moreover, YouTube will also delete the election videos that show information from a hacked source. This is aimed at preventing situations like the 2016 Wikileaks dump.
YouTube says that its platform can be used to spread misinformation. Besides, it does not want to become any hurdle in the upcoming elections.
This is the reason why YouTube has taken these steps to curb the potential abuse of its platform for election interference.
New community guidelines are on the place which will be updated with time
Apparently, YouTube already has a policy that removes videos that mislead people to vote. However, this new step to block the interference with the election is new.
Now, people might wonder what are the videos that fall under the radar of deletion under new guidelines?
YouTube’s community guidelines are already updated. It has all the information on which videos and live streams are allowed on the platform. Basically videos giving out wrong or fake information regarding the elections will be removed.
One example that YouTube gave in the blog post is that any video that creates a long voting line causing hurdles for others to vote, will be taken down.
Meanwhile, it will also display a new information panel for the 2020 elections on top of the search bar. This panel will include information like the candidate’s party affiliation, and the office they are running for.
Besides, it will include the candidate’s YouTube channel as well. But this information will be displayed only when the user searches for them.
Politicians have access to a set of tools to provide more detailed information about their campaigns
YouTube says that there are certain tools to which the politicians have access to. These tools will help them provide their users with additional information.
Notably, this information can include a link to their crowdfunding websites, sharing stories, live streaming events, and much more.
YouTube will show all the reputable channels in search results related to the upcoming campaign. However, point to note is that YouTube being a private platform has the right to decide what is right and wrong within its walls.
So, it depends on the users more to report such content that violates the policy and causes a hurdle to the upcoming presidential elections.
Moreover, we have seen Facebook and Twitter take up a similar stand to take down content that spread misinformation. And it is nice to see YouTube also joining the list, as it has a larger user base.