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YouTube Will Stop Removing False Presidential Election Fraud Claims (theverge.com) 160

In a blog post today, YouTube said it will stop removing content that "advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past US Presidential elections." The online video platform says that the "ability to openly debate political ideas, even those that are controversial or based on disproven assumptions, is core to a functioning democratic society -- especially in the midst of election season." The Verge reports: YouTube first introduced its election misinformation policy in December 2020, which barred users from posting content that spread false claims about the integrity of US elections. The platform says it has removed "thousands" of videos since implementing the policy. "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," YouTube states. "As with any update to our policies, we carefully deliberated this change."

Despite the policy reversal, YouTube says it will continue to enforce rules that prevent users from discouraging others from participating in an election. It will also take action against content that aims to mislead users about the time, place, or requirements for voting as well as content that disputes the validity of mail-in voting. Additionally, YouTube says it still prominently surfaces content from "authoritative sources" in search results and recommendations.

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YouTube Will Stop Removing False Presidential Election Fraud Claims

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  • Very cool (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mobby_6kl ( 668092 ) on Friday June 02, 2023 @06:21PM (#63571939)

    Just in time to get ready for the second round!

  • Translation (Score:5, Insightful)

    by taustin ( 171655 ) on Friday June 02, 2023 @06:26PM (#63571949) Homepage Journal

    There's so much of it that we would have to spend actual money to hire people to police it, so we give up.

    • I think you're right - only way to read it is like that.
    • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday June 02, 2023 @06:33PM (#63571971)
      That's several prominent right wing pundits on YouTube who routinely violate the policy by hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars worth of advertising on YouTube.

      Steven Crowder is still on YouTube despite repeatedly and consistently violating YouTube terms of service regarding the lgbtq+ community. He also buys around $250,000 to $300,000 of advertisement a year over on YouTube. And Dennis Prager spends millions promoting his fake University program.
    • by kbahey ( 102895 )

      There's so much of it that we would have to spend actual money to hire people to police it, so we give up.

      That is half of it ...

      The other half is : "There is so much of it, so might as well get views on it, and sell ads".

      So it is all about money whether it is spending to curb it, or profiting from it ...

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Or it could be "we couldn't decide if a video was for or against it anymore".

        A lot of debunking videos got caught up in the bans because they used footage from the videos they were debunking, so it became hard to differentiate.

        This was just like Thunderf00t's debunking the "masks cause oxygen starvation" myth where he was playing clips showing where the video was purposely faking the results and hoping no one catches it.

        If it results in people posting videos of the riots and more people posting the identiti

  • by franzrogar ( 3986783 ) on Friday June 02, 2023 @06:27PM (#63571953)

    ...of fake (lies) information...

    Quote: " stop removing content that "advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past US Presidential elections.""

    How about a video saying that Alphabet CEO was paid to mislead the voters and slow other parties videos? Or that he got in shady business with some KKK candidate to some state to ban there oposition videos? Or...

    I mean, those are "false claims that widespread fraud, ... occurred in ... past US Presidential elections."

    Will then Alphabet remove those? If they don't, then it's OK they approach to "allow spread of false information to make voters ignorant of truth". If they do, then they're just a bunk of hypocrites.

  • Misinformation (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Kunedog ( 1033226 ) on Friday June 02, 2023 @06:29PM (#63571955)
    Will they stop removing content repeating misinformation such as "Hands up, Don't shoot" or "Jacob Blake was unarmed" or . . . oh right, nevermind.
    • Re:Misinformation (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Whiney Mac Fanboy ( 963289 ) <whineymacfanboy@gmail.com> on Friday June 02, 2023 @11:16PM (#63572349) Homepage Journal

      "Jacob Blake was unarmed"

      I think the actual quote most people used was "Jacob Blake didn't have a gun".

      But I guess him having a knife was justification enough to shoot him seven times in the back? Or was it because he was a scumbag? Was that enough justification to shoot him in the back & leave him a paralyzed burden on his family & wider society for the rest of his life?

      • At a minimum, the Washington Post, ESPN, CNN, and Blake's family said "unarmed." How many were exposed to this misinformation and repeated it? How many were banned?
      • A man at the time with a warrant open for sexual assault, among other things.

        Resisting arrest, then reaching into somebody else's car, with children in the back. He admitted he had the knife in his hand. This was after attempts at tasering him failed. What should they have done? Wait for him to emerge so they can go mano a mano? Shoot the blade out of his hand, like in the films? Let him get in the car then drive off with the kids?

        If Blake were white, everybody acting the same way then this would have never

        • Right, so you're int the "being a scumbag & having a knife means you deserve to be shot seven times in the back" camp.

          • >Right, so you're int the "being a scumbag & having a knife means you deserve to be shot seven times in the back" camp.

            This is what's known as a straw man argument. It's easy to avoid. First, don't attempt to rephrase the other person's argument, particularly when it would help your argument.

            My argument was logical and utilitarian in nature, not making any moral judgements. To simplify it further, what happened followed from actions Blake took. Blake put officers in a very difficult situation in whic

      • Nearly all these problems can and should be fixed by changing laws so that anyone fleeing from police can be subject to deadly force.

  • Q is an authoritative source, right?
  • here we go again (Score:4, Interesting)

    by v1 ( 525388 ) on Friday June 02, 2023 @06:32PM (#63571969) Homepage Journal

    Let the Shameless Lying Begin!

    it DOES raise an interesting problem though, how to balance freedom of speech with freedom to lie and deceive. We don't allow Fraud. These people lie to get elected to a (usually lucrative) position of power, and when they lie to get our vote, their decisions usually harm us. It certainly FEELS like Fraud to me. We're "spending" a VERY limited resource, our vote, in exchange for a promised "policy". If they don't deliver, surely that's Fraud?

    • by Travco ( 1872216 )
      We don't allow fraud? You mean vinegar will really cure everything that's wrong with me? Or was it hydrogen peroxide? Maybe it was bleach
    • by UpnAtom ( 551727 ) on Friday June 02, 2023 @11:47PM (#63572373)

      False information on Facebook caused Brexshit. Britain is now the laughing stock of the world, has a flatlining economy, 11% inflation, an 8% deficit. a collapsing NHS, ihas lost half its car factories (with the others insisting they'll leave unless the deal is changed), is trying to ban protest, has endless shit in the rivers and an inability to buy salad every February.

      Some false information is less important eg Kissinger is in the news at the moment. It doesn't matter that much if people are slightly wrong about him.

      Social media can accompany misinfo with fact checks (Facebook does this for a small subsection of misinfo). Nobody is censored and the facts are promoted. If the factchecking is reliable and well-matched, this is ideal.

      You'd think AI was at the level it could detect misinfo on Youtube fairly easily and that it could do the same.

      It is very odd that Google is doing this. Hopefully, some whistleblower will tell the world why.

    • The truth is that democracy is simply an old system for old times.
      Democracy is treated like the untouchable sacred cow when it was made by the greeks 3000 years ago. Everyone's hailing it like the ultimate goal, but it barely worked back then, when the people who vote sat and talked with each other about who gets the vote and why.
      How is it supposed to work with the current state of society and the internet? People are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

      Not exactly the best man to quote, but I think

    • I maintain that this is only a problem in an electorate that doesn't have the cognitive tooling to understand when they're being lied to or manipulated. Our failure to teach philosophy in our high schools has resulted in citizens literally incapable of forming their own thoughts.
    • You want to arrest politicians for lying?

      Interesting concept. I'd agree if you could come up with a way to make it happen.

      In the meantime, free speech is free speech. As long as someone isn't inciting a riot or falsely smearing someone's reputation and other things already well covered by the law then anything else goes including lied and conspiracy theory and the rest. Anything less is not free speech. It's free speech "we" like.

  • So someone will post that story about Ron DeSantis' wife having two abortions.

    Or so I've heard.

  • by Travco ( 1872216 ) on Friday June 02, 2023 @06:50PM (#63572015)
    Tinnitus cure, weight loss, presidential fraud, dumb household hints, fake Tick Tock videos, weight loss, vinegar cures all..............
  • by Ichijo ( 607641 ) on Friday June 02, 2023 @06:55PM (#63572023) Journal

    the "ability to openly debate political ideas, even those that are controversial or based on disproven assumptions, is core to a functioning democratic society"

    Some platforms take this to an extreme, making it ok for someone to post lies but a bannable offense for someone else to truthfully call them a liar because insulting people is uncivil. And so misinformation wins.

    Would you rather be lied to politely or told the truth rudely?

  • Given that they're about to be swamped by AI generated content this makes sense. Ok Americans, keep it interesting, exciting and on point. I'll see youse again January 2025..... (o_0)
  • How the worm has turned.

    (but not by much really...)

  • The online video platform says that the "ability to openly debate political ideas, even those that are controversial or based on disproven assumptions, is core to a functioning democratic society

    Google is fiercely defending free speech, and this had nothing to do with the extra advertising revenue Google receives from facilitating and promoting extremist views and known falsehoods. It's a sacrifice that Google is willing to take in defense of the First Amendment.

  • The "ability to openly debate political ideas, even those that are controversial or based on disproven assumptions, is core to a functioning democratic society

    Yeah, right on, you tell them!

    [unless those ideas] dispute the validity of mail-in voting

    Oh hell yeah! Let them know what time it is in this biya ,,, wait, what?

    A functioning democratic society is essential, unless it questions the validity of mail-in voting?

    In which case fuck a functioning democracy with a sharp stick?

    Being banned from questioning t

  • "ability to openly debate political ideas, even those that are controversial or based on disproven assumptions, is core to a functioning democratic society -- especially in the midst of election season."

    Lying and malicious lies are not political debate they are what happens when people are scumbags and don't have any valid debate so they resort to underhand methods such as character assassination or lies about what an opponent would do. Which means this statement by Youtube is utterly disingenuous.

    When Yout

    • Your post is terrible, but since it is here, I can confront it. Maybe in doing so I will change your mind or the mind of someone reading this comment.

      Do you see how this works?

      • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

        Yes and no, dissenting voices in comments can and will likely be buried. Confirmation bias and algorithms which show people what they want will hide opposing arguments in other videos from those that see the bad videos.

        So it's better not to allow blatant lying, Youtube has that choice and I do not agree with their debate line at all, they simply want to show as many ads as possible, everything they do ids geared towards that goal including this action regardless of the negative consequences.

  • If they're no longer quashing what they consider to be false claims about the election, then will they also stop suppressing what they consider to be false claims about Covid treatments, origins, vaccine effects, etc? If not, then isn't this at least one hell of an inconsistency, if not downright hypocrisy?

    YouTube says the “ability to openly debate political ideas, even those that are controversial or based on disproven assumptions, is core to a functioning democratic society - especially in the midst

  • ...that the Republicans will treat them prejudicially if they block extremist, Christian Nationalist outright lies about the coming elections (We all know it's going to happen; let's not pretend). Google's lawyers & executives must've been straining for weeks over this: How to kowtow to the loonies to avoid political & legal scrutiny, threats of regulation, etc., while trying to maintain some image of reputability.
  • We do not need some kind of objective truth filtering because the truth is Clinton conspired with Hunter Biden to cover up the lizard people's lies. Only Trump candrain the swamp!! Also, I cannot possibly be biased because other people are dumb liars.

Pascal is not a high-level language. -- Steven Feiner

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