YouTube will no longer remove videos claiming the 2020 U.S. presidential election was stolen.
The video platform said in a blog post that it previously removed “tens of thousands” of videos that questioned elections since it implemented the policy in December 2020.
Now, YouTube “will stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past U.S. Presidential elections.” The change of heart was “carefully deliberated.”
“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 said.
The platform will continue to ban videos misleading voters about when, where, and how to vote, claims that discourage voting, and “content that encourages others to interfere with democratic processes.”
Meanwhile, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is claiming Meta-owned Instagram won’t let him set up an official campaign account.
In a Twitter post, RFK Jr. said attempts to establish an account resulted in being automatically banned when they attempt to set up a campaign account.
“When we use our TeamKennedy email address to set up Instagram accounts we get an automatic 180-day ban,” said the Democrat candidate on Twitter. “Can anyone guess why that’s happening?”