YouTube said it is removing misleading election fraud content starting on Wednesday. Some think it’s already too late.
For over a month, misinformation about election results spread across the internet, primarily peddled and pushed by President Donald Trump. Sites like Twitter have been flagging tweets that inaccurately question the validity of President-elect Joe Biden’s win. Facebook has also tried and grappled with it as well.
YouTube is only now cleaning up its site from future false election claims.
YouTube detailed its plan to remove election fraud content in a blog post published on Dec. 9.
“New: YouTube will now begin to remove new content that ‘misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.’ The company said decision comes after enough states certified results to determine Biden as Pres-elect,” Reporter Jim Sciutto tweeted.
A spokesperson for YouTube says the site was waiting until the Electoral College’s safe harbor day.
“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,” the spokesperson told the Daily Dot. “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.”
Safe harbor day, Dec. 8, is the deadline all states have to certify election results.
But four days after election day, Nov. 3, major news organizations and election experts called the election for Biden. It gave over a month for election fraud claims to spread on the site.
YouTube is now taking heat on Twitter for the delayed reaction to the disinformation on its platform.
“yeah don’t pull a muscle, guys,” reporter Karl Bode tweeted.
“What an absurdly late, cowardly decision. Typical of @YouTube to wait until all the damage has been done to address the problem,” another added.
People are noting that the platform is only going to remove new content containing election fraud claims. It means that the content already posted over the past month will remain available for viewers.