YouTube—YouTube reversed its election misinformation policy, allowing 2020 election denial content back on the platform
In June 2023, YouTube reversed its policy of removing content making false claims about the 2020 US presidential election being stolen. The platform had previously removed 'tens of thousands' of such videos since December 2020. YouTube stated the reversal was because 'removing this content does curb some misinformation' but 'could also have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech.' Critics argued this enabled continued spread of election denialism.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content Moderation | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Democratic Institutions | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Misinformation | +toward | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.590 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
YouTube announced reversal of election misinformation removal policy in June 2023
YouTube announced it would no longer remove content making false claims that the 2020 US presidential election was stolen, reversing a policy enacted in December 2020. The platform stated the change was because removing such content 'could also have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech.' The platform had removed tens of thousands of videos under the previous policy.