YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

Let me tell you a story.

There once was a company that made a social media platform for sharing video content. The platform was monetized by ads. The company noticed that its users watched more ads so long as they were being shown content which appealed to their personal preferences and opinions. The company dubbed this phenomena "engagement" and quickly introduced an algorithm to maximize engagement by constantly suggesting content which appealed to each individual user.

People loved the company's social media platform and it quickly grew larger than any of its alternatives. Luckily, the company already controlled the world's most popular search engine, web browser, and mobile operating system, so it was easy to make their platform and its addicting algorithm as accessible as possible. A few competitors still existed, but none came anywhere close to the scale and accessibility of the company's platform.

But something happened.

The algorithm which helped the platform grow and made so much money was having an adverse affect on the platform's users. The users were only being exposed to content they liked, which helped establish echo chambers. People were coddled by content which helped reinforce their existing opinions - never challenge them. As people became more and more established in their echo chambers, misinformation began to spread like wild fire. Users were desperate and the algorithm rewarded creators who provided content to help them avoid challenging their own opinions - regardless of whether it was true or not.

What was the company to do? The algorithm was too profitable for them to simply turn it off - especially when it came to political content. They tried demonetizing content about particular subjects and adding "fact check" bubbles to combat the spread of misinformation but it wasn't enough. They eventually started trying to identify and remove the content with misinformation altogether, but even that wasn't enough.

But then something amazing happens and th- oh my look at the time! I need to go now. Maybe we can finish this story some other day.

Republicans outperformed expectations in Congressional results. This is unusual given congressional results and presidential results have historically correlated. I don't understand the explanation for that if Democrats rigged the election somehow.

It seems more plausible that:

- there was a really high turnout aided by widespread absentee voting

- a large single-digit percentage of voters went Republican in the congressional races but didn't vote for Trump

I can't think of a fraud based scenario with any factual support that is as compelling.

> 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.

Why do you suppose that is, though? Could it be because algorithms designed to feed users content they like promote and reinforce echo chambers which, in turn, incentivize the creation and spread of convenient misinformation?

Social media did not start the echo chambers, but they have played a huge role in making them more accessible and extreme than ever before. How can we trust them to safeguard us from misinformation when they are the ones profiting from it?

I do not want Google deciding what is and isn't "misinformation". As far as I'm concerned, they're more guilty of the mess we're now in than any media organization or content creator.

Seriously? This president has not started/entered into a war for the first time since Carter, reformed the criminal justice system to reverse laws that unfairly targeted minorities and non-violent drug crimes (laws supported by Biden when they were passed, btw), presided over a record low unemployment rate and record high wage increases for American workers prior to the pandemic and the media treats him like he's the reincarnation of Hitler.

Imagine if Obama reformed the criminal justice system, wasn't a war monger in Syria/Libya and presided over a record economic boom? He'd be made a saint or something.

Go figure.