YouTube has suspended the One America News Network, one of the right-wing channels that aggressively misrepresents false allegations of widespread election fraud for violating its misinformation policy.
But the false information that the OAN got into trouble on Tuesday had nothing to do with the election. YouTube has removed a video that violated our content policies and claimed that Covid-19 is guaranteed to be cured. YouTube has announced that it has announced a strike against the channel as part of its three-strike policy. This meant that OAN could not upload new videos or live streaming to the platform for a week.
The move came on the same day as a group of Democratic senators urged YouTube to change its policy to allow videos that misrepresent election results and forced the company to take more aggressive action against fake content and to curb the spread of manipulated media ahead of the decisive election. Georgia for two Senate terms in January.
In the weeks following the election, the OAN published articles questioning the integrity of the vote and urging President Trump to make false claims that he won the election.
YouTube said the OAN is not an authoritative news source and has removed advertising from some of its videos because it undermines confidence in the election with “demonstrably false” information. However, the videos remained available on the platform, helping the OAN gain stake among the channels on the right.
In addition to the one-week suspension, YouTube has announced that it has excluded OAN from a program that allows affiliate channels to generate advertising revenue from videos due to repeated violations of COVID-19’s misrepresentation policy and other violations. One of America News’s YouTube channels will remain up during the suspension.
OAN representatives did not know comments are expected immediately on Tuesday.
YouTube, which is owned by Google, has been criticized for allowing videos that spread false allegations of widespread election fraud under a policy that allows videos that comment on the outcome of the election.
“Like other companies, we allow the election results and the counting process to be discussed, and we will continue to keep a close eye on new developments,” said Ivy Choi, a YouTube spokesman. “Our teams are working around the clock to quickly remove content that violates our policies and ensure that we connect people with credentials about the election.”
YouTube said it found videos in search results and recommendations that it considered credible news sources while tagging videos that discussed election results. This tag claims that the Associated Press called Joseph Joseph Biden Jr.’s election with a link to Google’s results page.
In a letter to Susan Wojcicki, YouTube’s CEO on Tuesday, four Democratic Democratic senators – Robert Menendez, New Jersey, Mazie Hirono, Hawaii, Gary Peters, Michigan and Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota – said they were “deeply concerned about the spread of misinformation.” on the platform. The letter pointed out that a YouTube video with an unfounded allegation of voter fraud in Michigan reached five million views.
“These videos want to undermine our democracy and call into question the legitimacy of President Biden’s inaugural administration,” the senators wrote. “In addition, because the current president has not committed himself to a peaceful transformation of power, misinformation and manipulated media content on your platform could cause civil unrest.”
Senators have also expressed concern about the election situation for the two Georgian senate seats, as these races will spark “significant national interest”. In a series of questions to Ms Wojcicki, senators asked whether YouTube would undertake to remove false or misleading information about the 2020 elections and the Georgian races. The company was asked to respond by December 8th.
