YouTube said Wednesday that it decided against tearing down election-related content from the conservative outlet One America News Network published on YouTube.
OAN posted a video on Wednesday titled, “Trump won. MSM hopes you don’t believe your eyes.” The video urges conservatives to call their secretaries of state with concerns about voter fraud and alleges that Democrats are tossing Republican ballots.
CNBC reported that it questioned YouTube about why YouTube would allow OAN to publish the video online and said that YouTube “refused” to remove the content.
YouTube, which is owned by Google, told The Washington Times that the content did not merit removal but did warrant halting ads on the video.
Ivy Choi, a YouTube spokesperson, said the ads were removed from the video because it contained false content about elections.
“Our Community Guidelines prohibit content misleading viewers about voting, for example content aiming to mislead voters about the time, place, means or eligibility requirements for voting, or false claims that could materially discourage voting. The content of this video doesn’t rise to that level,” said Ms. Choi in a statement. “All search results and videos about this election—including this video—surface an information panel noting that election results may not be final and we are continuing to raise up authoritative content in search results and recommendations.”
Google asserts that CNBC mischaracterized YouTube’s actions. Google declined to identify who flagged OAN’s video for review.
CNBC Digital did not respond to requests for comment on whether it asked that YouTube delete OAN’s content.
Pressure campaigns aimed at altering technology platforms’ behavior are not unheard of for CNBC’s colleagues at NBC. In June, NBC News’ Adele Momoko-Fraser celebrated on Twitter that Google had allegedly demonetized the conservative website The Federalist in response to questions from NBC and other organizations.
Google later said that it had not demonetized The Federalist and Ms. Momoko-Fraser said NBC did not “collaborate” on research that prompted Google to consider taking action against The Federalist.
Google’s refraining from restricting OAN’s video on Wednesday is notably different from decisions made by other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Facebook and Twitter have moved quickly to send notifications, tags, and labels restricting the visibility of content on their platforms surrounding the outcome of the 2020 election.
Twitter has restricted the visibility of several of President Trump’s tweets and retweets about the election and adopted an aggressive approach to content moderation while votes are being counted.
Facebook said Wednesday it started posting “Votes Are Still Being Counted” notifications on Facebook and Instagram shortly after Mr. Trump said early on Wednesday morning that he thought he had won reelection. Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, said via Twitter on Wednesday that the labels regarding premature declarations of victory would be expanded to cover elections at the “state-level and overall.”
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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