All videos with allegedly “hacked” information that could “interfere with the election” now banned from YouTube
08/19/2020 / By Ethan Huff
The Google-owned YouTube tech platform is cracking down on even more free speech in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election.
In an alleged effort to combat “election interference,” YouTube is, well, interfering with the election itself by imposing draconian new policies banning all video content that may contain “hacked” information about political candidates.
If someone puts up information about Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails, for instance, which the left has long claimed were “hacked” by the Russians, then this would be an example of the type of content that YouTube will now pull to prevent it from “interfering with the election.”
Following the decision earlier this month to ban all advertisements that supposedly contain information that was obtained through hacking, YouTube will now, as of Sept. 1, take down any video content that is perceived as containing information not publicly available through mainstream sources.
YouTube is also planning to axe video content that is seen as encouraging people to interfere with the election in other ways, including by encouraging others to create long lines at polling stations in order to prevent others from voting.
According to YouTube’s new guidelines, the plan is to remove content “that contains hacked information, the disclosure of which may interfere with democratic processes, such as elections and censuses. For example, videos that contained hacked information about a political candidate shared with the intent to interfere in an election.
YouTube is also removing content that encourages others “to interfere with democratic processes, such as obstructing or interrupting voting procedures. For example, telling viewers to create long voting lines with the purpose of making it harder for others to vote. (RELATED: YouTube also now prohibits videos that target politicians, which are their own protected class on the platform.)
Google, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Verizon, and Microsoft form coalition with government to “protect election integrity”
With the Democratic National Convention now underway, and the Republican National Convention soon to come, other tech companies like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Microsoft, and Verizon are joining in on the fun with a new coalition of their own that aims to work with elements in the U.S. government to “protect the integrity” of the upcoming election.
These highly biased tech companies claim that they only seek to stop the spread of “disinformation,” which they claim was prevalently spread by Russia in the leadup to the 2016 presidential election.
“We discussed preparations for the upcoming conventions and scenario planning related to election results,” these corporations indicated in a joint statement. “We will continue to stay vigilant on these issues and meet regularly ahead of the November election.”
One thing these corporations have already begun to do is to put “voting information labels” on all posts put up by both the Trump and Biden campaigns, as well as flag “misleading posts” by these candidates. These tech giants are also “tracking and exposing disinformation, publicly tracking political ads, labeling government and state-affiliated media accounts, unearthing deepfakes and curbing news pages that have political affiliations.”
“Translation: only anti-Trump, anti-conservative videos will be permitted,” wrote one Breitbart News commenter about YouTube’s new policies concerning “election interference.”
“I and many others are beginning to wonder if we are being set up by both ‘sides,'” wrote another in response to a comment about how the Republicans should have taken care of all this before the election by stripping Silicon Valley of its Section 230 immunity protections under the Communications Decency Act (CDA).
“YouTube: ‘It’s only interference when you post authentic information that voters might find useful, not when we ban it,'” joked another commenter about the true intent of YouTube’s newest censorship policy.
Sources for this article include:
Tagged Under: Censorship, election interference, First Amendment, free speech, hacked, YouTube
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