News, Social Media

YouTube reinforces guidelines ahead of the US presidential elections

Written by Taha Abdullah ·  1 min read >

The world renowned video streaming website has reinforced its guidelines on fake and misleading information sharing in an attempt to make the upcoming US elections fair and just.

In a blog post, on Monday, YouTube said that they “will remove any content that has been “technically doctored” or manipulated or misleads the user about the voting process or makes false claims about a candidate.”

YouTube is taking this stand to avoid any kind of complains both, from the candidates themselves, or their campaigns. They have also said, in a statement that they hope to make this influential platform a reliable source for all. “As the 2020 election season kicks into high gear in the United States, people will visit YouTube to learn about the candidates and watch the election season unfold. Over the last few years, we’ve increased our efforts to make YouTube a more reliable source for news and information, as well as an open platform for healthy political discourse.”

Google, Facebook, and Twitter have also been making changes to their policies. Google has set out to remove any and all election-related misleading content on their platform while Facebook has plans to limit the amount of election-related and political ads on theirs. Twitter started their precautionary measures back in November when they banned all political ads from their application.

YouTube, along with Google, is also planning on prohibiting any kind of misrepresentation of the procedures of the election such as any misguidance of the voting procedure or any kind of comments on the eligibility or ineligibility of any of the candidates.

“YouTube remains committed to maintaining the balance of openness and responsibility, before, during and after the 2020 U.S. election.”