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YouTube bans videos claiming fraud changed the 2020 result

On December 9, 2020, YouTube began removing newly uploaded content alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. It tied the timing to the 'safe harbor' deadline the day before, by which enough states had certified results. The policy was announced more than a month after Election Day.

Dec 9, 2020
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Whose side it served: Democrats

The rule removed claims made mainly by Trump supporters disputing Biden's win, which protected the certified Democratic victory from those claims on YouTube.

What the record shows

CNBC reported that YouTube would remove content claiming large-scale fraud or mistakes altered the result, such as claims that Biden won because of software glitches or counting errors. YouTube said it would start removing such content 'uploaded today (or anytime after),' so earlier videos generally stayed up. YouTube said that since September it had terminated more than 8,000 channels and thousands of videos for violating existing policies. CNBC noted YouTube had been criticized for being slower than Twitter and Facebook, which had been labeling election posts since November 3.

In their words

“we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today (or anytime after)”— YouTube, company blog post quoted by CNBC · source
The other side

Critics argued the policy came too late to matter and left earlier false videos online; others argued it ruled a contested political claim out of bounds, which YouTube itself later conceded could curtail political speech.

Sources

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