YouTube Promises to Ban Content Questioning 2020 Election Beginning Wednesday

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YouTube said Wednesday it would begin removing any content alleging “widespread fraud or errors” took place in the 2020 presidential election.

“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,” Michael Grosack, YouTube’s head of global content policy, wrote in a post on the company’s blog. “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.”

Grosack said that included videos “claiming that a presidential candidate won the election due to widespread software glitches or counting errors,” and that it would “ramp up” enforcement in weeks ahead, but that YouTube would make exceptions for “news coverage and commentary … if there’s sufficient education, documentary, scientific or artistic context.”

The company has faced criticism from liberals for refusing to take an aggressive approach toward moderating political content, even as Twitter, Facebook, and Google — YouTube’s parent company — have taken the opposite approach.

Wednesday’s announcement nonetheless invited opprobrium from conservatives, who widely predicted they would soon be banned. “I’m going to test this communist policy by YouTube today,” conservative pundit Dan Bongino wrote on Twitter. He invited users to watch his program on Rumble — a competitor to YouTube in which Bongino recently bought a stake — in the event he was banned, while Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams, another prominent figure among conservatives, invited users to watch him on a platform called “Locals” if YouTube gave him the boot.

YouTube added in Wednesday’s announcement that it would allow users to discuss allegations about wrongdoing in the election as long as they took the position that it did not take place.

“It has to be clear to the viewer that the creator’s aim is not to promote or support the content that violates our policies,” Grosack wrote. “For example, content telling people that the COVID-19 does not exist is allowed only if the content’s audio or imagery also directly refutes these claims or gives greater weight to the consensus from health and medical authorities that the claims are untrue.”