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YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

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Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#51

Post by tptacek »

rayiner wrote: post #23

This is an enormous overreach. > Given that, we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today (or anytime after) that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, in line with our approach towards historical U.S. Presidential elections. For example, we will remove videos claiming that a Presidential candidate won the election due to…

These claims are being slaughtered in ongoing court cases, and many of them are objectively batshit, like the guy who filed an affidavit about being prevented from observing vote counts because he drove to the wrong location, or the woman, central to the Texas suit against PA and MI, who claims the Obamas "funded the Wuhan lab where coronavirus was made". It is not the case that Google has to provide space for a claim simply because it's improvidently featured in a frivolous lawsuit.

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#52

Post by djsumdog »

quotemstr wrote: post #20

This policy is wicked and wrong. There are no other words for this policy. YouTube is deciding what of true and enforcing its perspective on the rest of the population. And you know it won't stop here. From now on, every time a controversy emerges between the media-tech-academia elite view of the world and the views of regular people, tech will use hard censorship to enforce the elite perspective. There is no natural…

They are the ministry of truth that Orwell warned about. It's not government, it's the combination of government and corporate interests.

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#53

Post by gitweb »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #31

I abhor this, but what can be done about it? I genuinely don't know how to push back against measures like these and I'm hoping people here have some ideas.

If you don't like it, you can upload your videos to one of the other 1000's of platforms or sign up for a shared web host and utilize P2P video sharing.

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#54

Post by gitweb »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #8
firloop wrote: post #3

> Yesterday was the safe harbor deadline for the U.S. Presidential election and enough states have certified their election results to determine a President-elect. Given that, we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today (or anytime after) that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election... This is likely going to make a lot of c…

It would be a catastrophe if the current US administration indeed was unable to ensure free and fair elections in their country - for the first time in US history, unless previous elections such as the 2016 election were fraudulent, too!

Right... if this election was fraudulent, then might as well cancel the 2016 elections as well. They also had 4 years to help improve election security, which conservatives waited until after they lost to cry fraud.

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#55

Post by jahewson »

flowerlad wrote: post #39

20 years ago reputed organizations such as newspapers, radio stations and television informed people the truth. Conspiracy theories were fringe and didn't have a way to spread. Today more than half the population believes in conspiracy theories because they learn the "truth" from disreputable sources on social media. This is dangerous for society. I am glad social media companies are taking action themselves, instead…

Ah yes, the truth of 20 years ago, like all those WMD in Iraq.

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#56

Post by brundolf »

macspoofing wrote: post #4

For God's sakes ... What underpins this need for social media companies to virtue signal about protecting 'election integrity' is the false notion that 2016 was stolen from Hillary by the Russians - a claim that had no evidential support (and no, that some trolls bought a minuscule amount of Facebook ads does not raise this claim to that level) but the entire Democratic party, with media allies, promulgated for the l…

The content being taken down isn't just harmful in theory, or from the perspective of one political party. It kills people.

https://www.wired.com/story/christchurch-shooter-youtube-rad...

Of course, if YouTube (and others) actually cared about helping, they would change or remove their algorithmic feed, which is the real crux of the problem. But that hits their bottom line more than pulling down individual pieces of content does, so here we are.

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#57

Post by ghiculescu »

tptacek wrote: post #51
rayiner wrote: post #23

This is an enormous overreach. > Given that, we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today (or anytime after) that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, in line with our approach towards historical U.S. Presidential elections. For example, we will remove videos claiming that a Presidential candidate won the election due to…

These claims are being slaughtered in ongoing court cases, and many of them are objectively batshit, like the guy who filed an affidavit about being prevented from observing vote counts because he drove to the wrong location, or the woman, central to the Texas suit against PA and MI, who claims the Obamas "funded the Wuhan lab where coronavirus was made". It is not the case that Google has to provide space for a clai…

Then let the courts decide that. There's no need for Google to get ahead of it. It's not like Youtube is running out of space.

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#58

Post by rat87 »

macspoofing wrote: post #4

For God's sakes ... What underpins this need for social media companies to virtue signal about protecting 'election integrity' is the false notion that 2016 was stolen from Hillary by the Russians - a claim that had no evidential support (and no, that some trolls bought a minuscule amount of Facebook ads does not raise this claim to that level) but the entire Democratic party, with media allies, promulgated for the l…

The problem is not just that the Russians tried to interfere with our election. It's that President Trump openly invited their illegal meddling and likely conspired with them and then tried to drop sanctions on then after the election

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#60

Post by zug_zug »

I think these should be kept in some form for the simple reason of history. Videos of the behavior of past presidents (e.g "Mission Accomplished") is a powerful reminder.

I would like to think youtube could serve as that public digital archive of the past, to do some slight good alongside their mission of profit. The power of being able to find video proof of past behavior in a moment is an essential tool to our collective discussion process.

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