YouTube ‘Reverses Course’ on Election Misinformation Censorship

YouTube has reversed course on “election misinformation” on their platform.  Since December 2020, the Google subsidiary has thoroughly censored what they deemed “misinformation.”

YouTube posted to the blog:

We first instituted a provision of our elections misinformation policy focused on the integrity of past US Presidential elections in December 2020, once the states’ safe harbor date for certification had passed. Two years, tens of thousands of video removals, and one election cycle later, we recognized it was time to reevaluate the effects of this policy in today’s changed landscape. In the current environment, we find that while removing this content does curb some misinformation, it could also have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech without meaningfully reducing the risk of violence or other real-world harm. With that in mind, and with 2024 campaigns well underway, we will stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past US Presidential elections. This goes into effect today, Friday, June 2. As with any update to our policies, we carefully deliberated this change.

The blog announcement elaborates that certain policies will remain in place:

All of our election misinformation policies remain in place, including those that disallow content aiming to mislead voters about the time, place, means, or eligibility requirements for voting; false claims that could materially discourage voting, including those disputing the validity of voting by mail; and content that encourages others to interfere with democratic processes.

As a result of this censorship operation, alternative platforms such as Rumble have exploded under the banner of “Free Speech.”  It is unclear what, if any, impact this shift had on their decision to reverse course.

The Gateway Pundit has been involved in several cases regarding censorship on social media platforms after being mentioned numerous times as purveyors of “mis and disinformation” in the Election Integrity Partnerships “The Long Fuse” report.  The EIP has been tied to organizations that contracted with government entities to flag certain claims online and report them to social media platforms via a third-party NGO.

The Gateway Pundit’s Brian Lupo (CannCon) was banned from YouTube in June 2021 after a hit piece from Media Matters made claims against several channels that were covering the 2020 Arizona Audit in Maricopa County.

YouTube back in play!!!!https://t.co/F6TxKS53c6

— CannCon (@CannConActual) June 2, 2023

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