YouTube Decides Not to Remove Fake News About US Elections

Local Media "Tolerates Fraudulent Claims"

YouTube has reversed its content policy of removing fake news related to the 2020 U.S. presidential election and other American elections.

This change comes about two and a half years after the policy was established following the 2020 December presidential election, when it was confirmed that Joe Biden, the current U.S. president, defeated then-President Donald Trump.

Photo by AP [Image source=Yonhap News]

According to a report by the U.S. online media Axios on the 2nd (local time), YouTube stated, "Since the 2024 presidential election campaign is currently progressing well, we have decided to stop removing false claims as was done extensively during the 2020 election, when fraud, errors, and defects were widespread."

Until now, YouTube has maintained an 'election integrity policy' that immediately removes content containing false information related to elections posted on its video platform.

Under this policy, content supporting former President Trump's claims of 'election fraud' alleging manipulation of the 2020 election results had been consistently blocked on YouTube.

Axios explained that with this new decision, even videos confirmed as fake news on YouTube will no longer be immediately deleted but will continue to be viewable with an accompanying explanation stating that "fraud, errors, or defects occurred."

YouTube said, "After removing tens of thousands of videos over the past two years, a full election cycle has passed," adding, "It is time to reassess the effectiveness of this policy in the changed environment."

Axios criticized this by saying, "It is a policy that tolerates election fraud claims within the United States."

On the same day, CNN also reported on YouTube's policy change, pointing out, "This means allowing content that claims election fraud in 2020."

Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube all blocked former President Trump's accounts three days after the January 6, 2021, incident when his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in protest of the election defeat.

YouTube restored former President Trump's account in March, allowing him to upload new videos. In January, Facebook also restored Trump's account, stating, "We do not want to interfere with open and democratic discussions in elections in democratic societies," and "People need to hear both the good and bad from politicians to make informed choices at the ballot box."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.