YouTube reverses policy, will allow election denial

YouTube announced Friday it is reversing prior policy and will now allow for content denying the validity of the 2020 presidential election and other elections and spreading false claims about voter fraud. 

The platform said in a blog post that effective immediately, it will stop removing content that shares false claims of “widespread fraud, errors, or glitches” from the 2020 election and other elections. 

YouTube originally implemented its policy to remove content spreading election denial in December 2020, following false claims from former President Trump and his allies that voter fraud dominated the 2020 presidential race. 

“Two years, tens of thousands of video removals, and one election cycle later, we recognized it was time to reevaluate the effects of this policy in today’s changed landscape,” the post states. “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.” 

Axios first reported the policy change. 

YouTube said users will still see content from “authoritative sources” in search and their recommendations when they look for news and content related to elections. The company noted that videos from these sources were the most-viewed and recommended election-related videos on the platform during the 2020 cycle. 

The post added that YouTube’s election misinformation policies are remaining in place, prohibiting content that is designed to mislead voters about the time, place, means or eligibility requirements for voting, content that encourages others to interfere with the democratic process and false claims that could “materially discourage” voting. 

False claims that could discourage voting include disputing the validity of voting by mail, according to the post.

The reversal comes as several notable online platforms have adjusted their policies to deal with election denial, including the reinstatements of Trump’s accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.