Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s YouTube account can be seen on phones and laptops after Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc reinstated it after Google lifted the ban on Trump following the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Hill incident. Trump’s more than two-year suspension. March 17, 2023 riots in Washington.
Jim Berger | Reuters
Google-have youtube The video platform announced Friday that it will stop removing false allegations of widespread election fraud in the 2020 presidential race.
YouTube on a blog post It made the decision to balance its twin goals of “protecting our community and providing a venue for open discussion and debate.” The decision, made ahead of the 2024 midterm elections, undoes a policy that was put in place in December 2020 after President Joe Biden won the election.
“Two years and one election cycle after tens of thousands of videos were removed, we recognize it’s time to reassess the impact of this policy in today’s changing environment,” YouTube wrote. “In the current environment, we found that while removing this content did curb some misinformation, it could also have the unintended effect of limiting political speech without significantly reducing the risk of violence or other real-world harm.”
The new rules will go into effect on Friday, June 2.
In the 2020 election, the company faced backlash for delays in taking action when flagging and removing videos showing misinformation or false claims about widespread voter fraud.Following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, YouTube says it will start suspending channels that make false claims about widespread voter fraud
As of March 2023, YouTube has lifted restrictions on Trump’s account following the Jan. 6 insurrection.
YouTube said some aspects of its election misinformation policy remained in place, including highlighting authoritative sources in searches and recommendations and banning posts designed to mislead voters about where and how to vote.
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