On Wednesday, YouTube announced that it will begin removing any content alleging widespread voter fraud influenced the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election.
In the immediate aftermath of the November 3rd election, YouTube came under fire for allowing channels to publish videos making false claims about election results. In one instance, One America News Network, a verified YouTube channel, published a video declaring that “Trump won” the election. At the time, YouTube defended its decision to let the video stand, saying in a statement, “Like other companies, we’re allowing these videos because discussion of election results & the process of counting votes is allowed on YouTube.”
The company went on to say that content from “authoritative news organizations” were “the most popular videos about the election.”
In its Wednesday blog, YouTube said that its decision to begin removing misleading election videos follows the US’s safe harbor deadline and that “enough states have certified their election results to determine a President-elect.” Starting Wednesday, YouTube will begin removing any new content that misleads viewers about the outcome of the 2020 election.
YouTube’s announcement follows a series of lawsuits placed by the Donald Trump campaign challenging the results of the election. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected a request to block certification of Pennsylvania’s election results, making it nearly impossible for Republicans to invalidate Joe Biden’s victory in court.
In the post, YouTube said its election information panels had surfaced over 200,000 election-related videos and were shown over 4.5 billion times. The company said that it would update these panels Wednesday, linking to electoral college results provided by the Office of the Federal Register calling Biden the official president-elect.