Google-owned YouTube has announced that it is scrapping the video streaming platform’s partisan 2020 “election misinformation” policy ahead of the 2024 cycle.
Since the 2020 election, YouTube has been enforcing rules that remove content and suspend accounts that violate the policy.
However, like other Big Tech platforms’ “misinformation” rules, the policy almost exclusively targeted conservatives raising concerns about election integrity while often ignoring false claims from the Left.
This decision comes eight months before a Republican nominee will be named.
So far, the GOP pool includes President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), political commentator Larry Elder, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
The platform began enforcing its policy surrounding election integrity after the states’ safe harbor date for certification had passed and stopped enforcing it Friday.
“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,” YouTube’s blog post read.
“With that in mind, and with 2024 campaigns well underway, we will stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past US Presidential elections.
“The ability to openly debate political ideas, even those that are controversial or based on disproven assumptions, is core to a functioning democratic society–especially in the midst of election season,” the post read.
Over the course of two years, the platform claims it has removed “tens of thousands of videos” in the name of the policy.
It will continue to remove videos that contain themes of voter suppression, candidate eligibility, incitement to interfere with democratic processes, and distribution of hacked materials.
Meanwhile, the election integrity policy will still apply to the 2021 German federal election and the 2014, 2018, and 2022 Brazilian presidential elections.
“You only move goalposts when you’re losing,” rival video platform Rumble tweeted.
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