Highlights
- YouTube said in a statement that it will start removing videos that claim US elections were rigged or fraudulent from Wednesday.
- YouTube has already removed more than 8,000 channels and thousands of videos relating to US elections for violating its policies.
- Polls show that a majority of Trump voters do not believe that Joe Biden won the elections fairly.
YouTube will begin taking down new videos that claim US President-elect Joe Biden won the elections due to voting fraud or error, the video streaming giant announced on Wednesday, after the social network came under fierce criticism for allowing content advancing President Trump's baseless voter fraud claims to remain on the platform long after the election has been decided.
YouTube in a blogpost said that, it will remove any new videos uploaded from Wednesday onwards that "mislead people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election."
Democrats have been critical of YouTube for not doing enough to remove fake news and conspiracy theories on the platform. "Yesterday was the safe harbour deadline for the US Presidential election and enough states have certified their election results to determine a President-elect," said YouTube.
YouTube has already removed "thousands" of videos and more than 8,000 channels for election-related content that violated its existing policies, which ban "spam, scams, or other manipulated media, coordinated influence operations, and any content that seeks to incite violence," the company said.
The announcement comes after a "safe harbour" deadline - which sets a date by which states need to certify the results of the presidential election.
YouTube videos discussing "election fraud" had been viewed more than 680 million times on November 16 alone, according to an independent analysis by Transparency Tube. That number includes videos that both support and dispute claims of voter fraud, with the analysis finding that videos supporting voter fraud claims received 137 million views between Nov. 3 and Nov. 7 alone.
Meanwhile, YouTube's parent company Google said that it will lift a moratorium on election related advertising from Thursday given that the outcome of the Presidential election has been decided. Google along with Facebook had temporarily stopped accepting election related adverts to prevent their platforms from being used to spread misinformation or fake news among American voters.
The public attention will now switch to other social media giants like Facebook and Twitter, whether they will follow suit. However, despite their efforts it might already be too late, President Trump's fraud claims have spread among his follower base like wildfire, with polls showing that a significant majority of Trump voters do not believe that Joe Biden fairly won the election.