8th December 2020 marked the so-called ‘safe-harbor’ deadline for the election results. By this deadline, most of the states locked their election results. This means that the majority of the states have given out their final results and it seems that President-elect Joe Biden’s victory has been confirmed. This day also marks the beginning of the removal of videos on YouTube containing misinforming content related to the US Presidential elections.
YouTube has said that after the safe-harbor deadline, things are very clear, and enough states have certified their election results for the President-elect. So now, YouTube will be removing all the content that presents wrong facts related to the election in front of the people, and all the videos that claim that the election was rigged, or Joe Biden won because of software glitches and counting errors. Any videos that contain content that is misleading in any way regarding the US Presidential election will now be taken down immediately.
However, this may or may not involve the misinforming videos that were posted before this announcement by YouTube. Although YouTube claims to have removed almost 8000 channels and a lot more videos since September 2020 that violated its policies related to misinformation and propaganda, the company has tried to moderate its content effectively to curb misinformation, especially around the elections.
Despite all these efforts, the company has been heavily criticized for allowing some videos that contained false allegations, and for assuming a relaxed stance in comparison to Facebook and Twitter and some other social platforms that were far stricter than YouTube.
YouTube says that they understand the need for vigilant scrutiny on their election-related stance. However, they have tried to keep everything in control and balanced. They have allowed a large number of political speech and have also made sure that their platform is not used to create real-life problems or to incite civil unrest. They have also tried not to become a source of spreading harmful misinformation.
While YouTube is now going to take strict action against misinforming content, Google on the other hand is going to lift off its temporary ban on election-related ads. Now, this may not sit well with Donald Trump’s pet, rightist organization, One America News Network. This organization was banned from posting on Google because of their claims that the election was rigged, and the victory was stolen from Donald Trump.
Read next: Breaking Language Barriers, Hashtag Pages, and Texts in Shorts - YouTube Updates Its Community On What's To Come
YouTube has said that after the safe-harbor deadline, things are very clear, and enough states have certified their election results for the President-elect. So now, YouTube will be removing all the content that presents wrong facts related to the election in front of the people, and all the videos that claim that the election was rigged, or Joe Biden won because of software glitches and counting errors. Any videos that contain content that is misleading in any way regarding the US Presidential election will now be taken down immediately.
However, this may or may not involve the misinforming videos that were posted before this announcement by YouTube. Although YouTube claims to have removed almost 8000 channels and a lot more videos since September 2020 that violated its policies related to misinformation and propaganda, the company has tried to moderate its content effectively to curb misinformation, especially around the elections.
Despite all these efforts, the company has been heavily criticized for allowing some videos that contained false allegations, and for assuming a relaxed stance in comparison to Facebook and Twitter and some other social platforms that were far stricter than YouTube.
YouTube says that they understand the need for vigilant scrutiny on their election-related stance. However, they have tried to keep everything in control and balanced. They have allowed a large number of political speech and have also made sure that their platform is not used to create real-life problems or to incite civil unrest. They have also tried not to become a source of spreading harmful misinformation.
While YouTube is now going to take strict action against misinforming content, Google on the other hand is going to lift off its temporary ban on election-related ads. Now, this may not sit well with Donald Trump’s pet, rightist organization, One America News Network. This organization was banned from posting on Google because of their claims that the election was rigged, and the victory was stolen from Donald Trump.
Read next: Breaking Language Barriers, Hashtag Pages, and Texts in Shorts - YouTube Updates Its Community On What's To Come
