YouTube Bans New Videos Claiming US Election Fraud Following Criticism

YouTube on Wednesday banned new videos with bogus claims of election fraud, saying enough states have certified Joe Biden as the next US president to make it official.

Meanwhile, YouTube parent Google said it will lift a moratorium on election-related advertising on Thursday given the outcome in the US has been decided.

Google, as well as Facebook, temporarily stopped taking election-related advertisements to prevent being used to spread misinformation or confusion among US voters.

“To protect users, we regularly pause ads for a discrete period over unpredictable, ‘sensitive’ events when ads can be used to exploit the event or amplify misleading information,” Google said in reply to an AFP inquiry.

“While we no longer consider this post-election period to be a sensitive event, we will continue to rigorously enforce our ads policies, which strictly prohibit demonstrably false information that could significantly undermine trust in elections or the democratic process.”

The position changed on Wednesday with a ban being rolled out at the leading video-sharing platform.

A “safe harbour deadline” for the election passed on Tuesday, with enough states certifying election results to make former vice president Biden the winner, the platform said.

“As always, news coverage and commentary on these issues can remain on our site if there’s sufficient education, documentary, scientific or artistic context,” YouTube said.

Only a small portion of YouTube viewing has been election-related content, with the bulk of that generated by authoritative news sources, according to the company.

The US Supreme Court dealt the latest blow Tuesday to Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his election loss when it denied his allies’ attempt to block the certification of votes in key state Pennsylvania.

More than a month since the November 3 election, Trump still refuses to concede to Democrat Biden, who has a seven million-vote lead, and continues to make baseless claims of fraud.

Facebook did not respond to a query about plans regarding is suspension of post-election political advertisements, which remained in effect.