YouTube has said that it will begin removing videos which dispute Biden’s election victory. As reported by The Verge, this move as the company looks to take further steps to tackle misinformation.
YouTube has been busy over the past few months with a whole host of new features for this Music client following a migration over from Google Play. On the main platform, YouTube has begun testing AI-Generated automatic video chapters. The company hopes this will keep viewers engaged on the platform for longer.
The company has also made a number of fundamental changes to its other platforms. These have not necessarily pleased all users. For example, YouTube will begin to run ads on smaller creators videos without sharing the ad revenue with them.
This is because these creators are not enrolled in the partner program. A move which has angered a number of creators.
The move to remove videos which allege widespread voter fraud a month after the election is not a surprising one. Other social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have done similar things so this generally falls in line.
YouTube to begin removing videos disputing Biden’s win
YouTube has come under fire for not removing this sort of content over the past few weeks. Complaints raged especially when a verified YouTube channel published a video claiming Trump won the election.
At the time YouTube defended its position. It stated, “we’re allowing these videos because discussion of election results & the process of counting votes is allowed on YouTube”.
However, it looks like the company has reneged on this decision and would begin to remove misleading election content. This comes after US’s safe harbor deadline leading YouTube to state “enough states have certified their election results to determine a President-elect”.
The likelihood of Biden’s victory facing a significant legal challenge has deteriorated significantly in the last couple of days. After the Supreme Court rejected a request to block certification of Pennsylvania’s election results, Trump has all but run out of ways of winning the election.
As a result, it has made it easier for social media platforms to remove and block content disputing the election result. This is likely why YouTube now feels much more confident in taking these steps.
The company did also point out that its election information panels had surfaced over 200,000 election-related videos with over 4.5 billion views. The company will also update these panels to show links to electoral college results provided by the Office of the Federal Register.