YouTube will be taking a stand against accounts and videos that produce misleading content about the presidential election results. The media outlet announced that they would be removing such content, including those claiming that the outcome was shaped by widespread fraud.
In the past, YouTube has endured criticism for allowing content to proliferate with unsubstantiated claims and conspiracy theories from media outlets like One America News Network, personalities such as Lou Dobbs, and President Donald Trump.
“Given that, we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today (or anytime after) that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, in line with our approach towards historical U.S. Presidential elections,” YouTube said in a blog post.
“For example, we will remove videos claiming that a Presidential candidate won the election due to widespread software glitches or counting errors. We will begin enforcing this policy today and will ramp up in the weeks to come.”
YouTube added that since September, they have terminated over 8,000 channels and videos that violate their existing policies, which include thousands of harmful and misleading election-related videos. Furthermore, the media outlet stated that they remove over 77% of the videos before reaching 100 views.
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
