Youtube stops removing “election denial” videos
When the internet was made available to the wider public, it was thought that a new golden age would soon dawn. If each could consult the cumulative knowledge of the human race, there would be no more ignorance. Lighting 2.0. That did not go well.
There was a time when people who thought the Earth was flat just weren’t taken seriously. But with the advent of the internet, for every thought, no matter how imaginative, there is a group of people who will take up arms for it. So is the idea that Trump has actually won the American presidential election with flying colors and that Biden has only been harnessed by a small army of fraudsters. Well, what can you do.
Youtube takes a turn
In the first instance, therefore, mainly moderate content that is published on your platform. This was done in various ways, and given the American legislation on internet platforms, on a voluntary basis. In the gray distant past when Trump was still on Twitter and the ignorami among us (which I could still count myself among at the time) could still laugh at Elon Musk, tweets from the now former president were fact-checked where necessary. Usually in the form of a link to solid information about, for example, voting by mail.
YouTube took a more rigorous approach: the platform chose to simply remove videos propagating the big election lie. That didn’t happen once or twice. According to Youtube, many thousands of videos have been removed from the site since the policy was enacted. So now they come back to that.
“It is time to re-evaluate what the effects of our policies have been in today’s changing landscape.” Furthermore, the company stated in the same blog post that while removing videos has stopped the spread of disinformation, they still see reason to stop the policy. “The policy may have the unintended effect of limiting free political expression without meaningfully reducing the risk of violence.”
New elections coming up
The timing of this choice will not be a coincidence. The next presidential election will only start in November of 2024, but the whole circus has already started. For example, an important deadline for potential candidates has recently passed. For example, Trump has already started the election campaign with a straight leg by attacking fellow candidate and pudding enthusiast Ron DeSantis. This also means that it is a matter of waiting for the first loser to call wolf. Republicans have even accused each other of fraud during regional elections. Republican election workers were also at odds with their own party over the dangerous narrative that the election was “stolen.”
The question of whether YouTube will also turn a blind eye to groundless allegations of fraud surrounding the 2024 elections was therefore quickly raised. However, YouTube does not yet have an answer to that question. The blog post refers specifically to past elections and says about the upcoming election only that the company will provide more information in the coming months.
Still, there are concerns
However, the allegations leveled by Trump and his cronies were not without consequences. The narrative that Trump was robbed, commonly referred to in America as ‘The Big Lie’, could not be captured on the internet. It is impossible to indicate the consequences as a whole, but one incident clearly shows what the dangers are. On January 6, 2021, a mob incited by Trump headed for the Capitol. The names of politicians who were to be hanged were chanted and fights broke out with the police. After the hurried evacuation of Congress, the insurgents penetrated even into this very heart of American democracy.
As so often, reports of the threat of imminent violence from right-wing extremists were ignored. Trump had not hidden his intentions under chairs or benches. His followers had made their plans on social media. Yet Capitol security was completely unprepared for the violence headed their way. When the dust had settled, 5 people had died. In the months following the attack, 4 more officers took their own lives.
The legitimacy of the upcoming election will certainly be called into question again if Trump loses again. Social media play a crucial role in spreading disinformation. I don’t know if simply removing content does not outweigh the risks. I am very curious whether Youtube will take its own responsibility for preventing a new attack on American democracy seriously.
