YouTube doubles down on not removing false election videos

By Ho Young Won
published

YouTube Premium on a Galaxy S9
YouTube Premium on a Galaxy S9 (Image credit: Joe Maring / Android Central)

What you need to know

  • Following the 2020 U.S. election, YouTube has been criticized for the growing number of misinformation and conspiracy videos undermining the election results on the platform.
  • In a series of new tweets, YouTube has defended itself, saying that most popular election videos come from 'authoritative news organizations.'
  • In contrast to how Facebook and Twitter have been actively labeling and removing election misinformation, YouTube claims that its platform supports an open discussion of election processes.

Following the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, top social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have been struggling to deal with the onslaught of misinformation and conspiracy content with false claims about the election results.

While Facebook and Twitter have been particularly active in labeling and even removing content with completely false election information, YouTube has had a number of popular conspiracy videos that have started to trend and spread throughout the platform. Due to this rather apparent trend, the video platform has been heavily criticized for its seemingly lax content moderation.

However, instead of promising further policy or algorithm changes, YouTube seems to have taken a defensive stance. In a series of new tweet replies from the @YouTubeInsider Twitter account, YouTube has strongly defended its content moderation efforts.

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In the tweets, YouTube comments that "most popular videos about the election are from authoritative news organizations," supposedly disregarding the claims that there are a significant number of videos with false election claims. YouTube adds that the platform allows "these videos because discussion of election results & the process of counting votes is allowed on YT."

The U.S. presidential election has already been projected to be in favor of Joe Biden, and many foreign leaders have already congratulated the soon-to-be president on his victory. However, if these misleading and conspiracy videos continue to surface on major social platforms and eventually on people's phones, the national unrest over the election will most likely not be resolved for a long time.

10 Comments
  • YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc, do not have a "moderation" problem, they have a "censorship" problem.
    Thankfully, Joe Biden will NOT be President.
  • Definitely these far left syco's need a bit of There own medicine.
  • Joe Biden just won Arizona this morning. Keep dreaming
  • Did Arizona certified the results? No.
    And the claims of the "lawsuit being dropped" are being made by whom? CNN. Well. Let's put it like this: the media is worth sh*t in the electoral process of any country. They don't decide who wins, they don't call results and they certainly don't certify them nor make them final. So...deal with it.
  • Lmao...the media. Voters decided this election. Not the media and NOT crying , whining Trumpers.
  • You keep agreeing with them Android Central they are actively censoring everyone and this my friend is called welcome to living in north Korea era. I can't believe Android Central published this article this is totally false news
  • "YouTube claims that its platform supports an open discussion of election processes" ...so long as your "discussion" supports Google/YouTube agenda. But if you are on the other side, then prepare to have your comments censored and/or channel suspended/shut down. YouTube's "openness" is a joke. If YouTube was truly an open platform that supported *real* freedom speech, there wouldn't be a surge of alternative sites.
  • Android Central didn't seem to have a problem with Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube not censoring posts with conspiracy theories about Russian collusion 4 years ago. So why the concern now. Maybe try to stick to things you understand.
  • HO YOUNG WON news flash, YouTube-Twitter-Facebook are social media services that SHARE other peoples data. They are not CONTENT PROVIDERS.
    Its not their place or job to censor anything.
    If they do then that puts them in an entirely different category of business and subject to more regulations and legalities. So keep your liberal views to yourself. You dont decide squat either.
  • Since when did we decide big tech oligopolies had a duty to remove false information? As long as someone isn't directly and specifically calling for violence we should let them spout of any wackaloon thing they want from claiming the moon landing was fake to Trump being a Putin spy.