YouTube plans to censor political election “misinformation” that doesn’t crack any rules
YouTube will reduce subjective “borderline” content.
YouTube has detailed how it will scale up its censorship efforts in the run-up towards the 2022 US midterm elections by removing election “ misinformation” and suppressing articles that doesn’t break any guidelines but is considered to be “ borderline. ”
YouTube statements that its election misinformation policy applies to any past US usa president election, the 2021 The german language federal election, and the 2014 and 2018 Brazilian usa president elections. Under this policy , alleging that will “ widespread fraud, mistakes, or glitches” occurred during these elections or claiming that “ certified results of individuals elections were false” is usually banned.
Despite YouTube’s claim that this plan applies to any past US presidential election, numerous video clips questioning the 2016 ALL OF US presidential results and alleging that Russia hacked the particular election are still on the platform. By contrast, the policy has been used to get rid of more than 8, 000 stations for making “ harmful and misleading” promises about the 2020 US president election. And YouTube said it’s already removed several videos related to the 2022 US midterms.
In addition to removing content that breaks the election misinformation rules, YouTube will also prevent “ borderline” content from being broadly recommended. According to YouTube, borderline content doesn’t break any rules but is under control because it comes close to breaking the guidelines.
Finally, Youtube . com will amplify mainstream media outlets that it deems to be “ authoritative” by:
- Prominently suggesting their content
- Promoting their election evening live streams on the YouTube homepage
- Incorporating labels from these sources below videos about the midterms and in search results about the midterms
YouTube said that PBS NewsHour, The Wall Street Journal, Univision and local ABC, CBS and, NBC affiliate marketers are some of the authoritative sources that will receive additional hyperbole.
In 2020, YouTube’s artificial amplification of mainstream media outlets gave them a huge benefit over independent creators . Independent creators were 14x less likely to be recommended on election-related content and mainstream media outlets had an 88% chance of ranking in the top ten search results for election-related content.
This year, Youtube . com has censored several video clips about the 2022 Brazilian common election including a from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and multiple videos through journalists .
YouTube is one of several Big Tech platforms to announce increased election censorship measures in the run-up to the 2022 US midterms with Facebook and Twitter recently describing how they plan to censor what they consider to be election misinformation as the midterms approach.
