The presidential election is well over a month past now, but the fallout seems far from over. President Donald Trump continues to dispute the results, Joe Biden continues to fill his cabinet assuming he is going to be taking over the job, and social media outlets continue to lay down aggressive and heavy-handed rules regarding content they will allow to be published.
On Wednesday, YouTube made a big announcement: Starting now, it will block and remove content that contains statements “alleging widespread fraud or errors that change the outcome of a historical U.S. presidential election.”
Unlike Twitter, which has posted disclaimers to any tweets that mention voter fraud and similar wording, YouTube will take down videos that make mention of something that many experts still believe has merit. “For example, we will remove videos claiming that a presidential candidate won the election due to widespread software glitches or counting errors. We will begin enforcing this policy today and will ramp up in the weeks to come,” the Google-owned company said in a statement. “As always, news coverage and commentary on these issues can remain on our site if there’s sufficient educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic context.” It did not elaborate on the context it requires.
YouTube had set a Dec. 8 deadline because that is the date on which all states must have certified their election results and their presidential electors. Their stance is that enough states have now certified the presidential election results, declaring Joe Biden the winner.
YouTube made no mention of the remaining legal challenges going on. The Supreme Court will be hearing a lawsuit initiated by the Texas attorney general this week, with one of the potential, albeit long-shot, outcomes being that the results of the presidential election change.
In addition, after the flagged comment is removed, YouTube will then “guide” people to “authoritative information” regarding election results. Those authorities include ABC, CNN, NBC and CBS.
Republican critics point out that this is another way Big Tech companies engage in censorship.
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