YouTube has reversed a policy from December 2020 and will no longer remove videos falsely claiming the 2020 U.S. presidential election was stolen.
The big picture: YouTube, owned by Google, has taken down tens of thousands of videos questioning the integrity of past U.S. presidential elections since creating the policy in 2020.
* The platform will continue to ban videos misleading voters about when, where, and how to vote, and content encouraging interference with democratic processes.
* Some false claims about election fraud or errors in other countries’ elections, such as Germany and Brazil, are still prohibited.
What they’re saying: Critics argue that changing the policy leaves room for people like Donald Trump to continue spreading false information about the 2020 election without consequence.
* Julie Millican, vice president of liberal watchdog Media Matters for America, says YouTube and other platforms are “setting the stage for an encore” of the attempted insurrection.
Comparing to other platforms: YouTube’s policy previously went further than Facebook and Twitter, which opted to label rather than remove false election claims.
* Twitter stopped labeling false claims about the 2020 election early last year, while Facebook has reportedly pulled back on its use of labeling, according to a 2022 Washington Post analysis.
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