YouTube announced this week that it will censor content that alleges the 2020 presidential election was tainted by widespread voter fraud.
The company claimed that “enough states have certified their election results” to confirm that Democratic candidate Joe Biden won the election.
Because of this, any claim to the contrary, or any claim that alleges “widespread fraud or errors” that could “change the outcome of the presidential election,” is considered false and will be removed, YouTube explained.
“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,” the company said in a statement.
“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 continued. “As always, news coverage and commentary on these issues can remain on our site if there’s sufficient education, documentary, scientific, or artistic context.”
YouTube said it will “guide” its content moderators to rely on “authoritative information” provided by mainstream media outlets such as ABC, CBS, NBC or CNN.
This will allow the platform to strike a balance between “allowing for a broad range of political speech and making sure our platform isn’t abused to incite real-world harm or broadly spread harmful misinformation,” the company said.
Conservatives argued YouTube’s latest act of censorship has revealed that Big Tech is “the DNC’s de facto PR firm.”
.@Google owned @YouTube officially announcing free speech no longer allowed. If you have concerns about election integrity, you must sit down and shut up. Repeal Section 230 and break these companies up https://t.co/EfBfCZHzv2
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) December 9, 2020
YouTube has declared you are now forbidden from criticizing the government’s handling of the election
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) December 9, 2020
YouTube is only going to promote “authoritative” news content that their leftists overlords approve of, and bury everything related to election fraud so they can will Biden’s illegitimate presidency to life.
This is not what innocent people do…this is what corrupt tyrants do. pic.twitter.com/Z0Gjn3zmzv
— Mindy Robinson 🇺🇸 (@iheartmindy) December 9, 2020
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
