YouTube scraps 2020 US election misinformation policy

YOUTUBE will stop removing content that falsely claims the 2020 US presidential election was plagued by “fraud, errors or glitches,” the platform said yesterday, a decision quickly criticised by anti-misinformation advocates.

The announcement by the Google-owned video website is a marked departure from its policy initiated in December 2020, which attempted to curb false claims – most importantly pushed by then-president Donald Trump – that his re-election loss to Joe Biden was due to the vote being “stolen.”