The Google-owned video service is back-tracking on policies it enacted shortly after the 2020 election to remove new posts that claimed voter fraud changed the outcome. [1]
YouTube said it updated the policy to protect the ability to “openly debate political ideas, even those that are controversial or based on disproven assumptions. 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.”
Follow the money
Media Matters (MM), a left-leaning watchdog group, said the policy change isn’t surprising and that YouTube was one of the last hold-outs for such a policy. MM vice president, Julie Millican added, “[these platforms] have made it clear that one attempted insurrection wasn’t enough. They’re setting the stage for an encore.”
These platforms rely heavily on advertising revenue. They plan to cash in because they’ve seen just how contentious the 2024 election season will be. They can’t do that if they’re concerned with misinformation, disinformation, and facts. We see it in every sector of industry which is given some self-policing latitude. The destructive externalizing of accountability and risk.
Hardly trustworthy
Of course, YouTube is rarely a source worth your trust in the validity or verifiability of it’s content. It’s an open platform with a shrinking regard for the content it serves. As long as it can serve ads, it doesn’t really care. I’d hoped that through common sense policy YouTube could at least not foster it’s disinformation dumpster fire vibe.
In reply to their weasel cop-out of debating political ideas I say only this: Purposefully continuing to spread lies is not debating political ideas. It’s platforming liars and I consider you complicit in the harmful fallout because you’ve given up trying to prevent it.
YouTube, Google, and Alphabet: fostering a dangerous culture of aggression and lies for profit.
Footnotes
| ⇑1 | “YouTube Changes Policy to Allow False Claims about Past US Presidential Elections.” 2023. AP NEWS. June 2, 2023. https://apnews.com/article/youtube-election-misinformation-policy-42a6c1b7623c485dbc04eb76ad443247 |
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