Roughly a third of all US adults regularly turn to YouTube for their news. Since the 2020 presidential race, the platform has loosened its guidelines, allowing increased spread of political misinformation. A new report is highlighting YouTube’s election lie problem, as well as who is profiting the most from them.
The report released on October 31st from watchdog Media Matters for America shows the extent to which election-related lies spread across YouTube in the months leading up to the November 5th election. The organization counted at least 286 videos from May through August containing false information related to the 2020, 2022, and 2024 US elections from 30 prominent right-wing channels. This livestreamed and prerecorded content collectively garnered at least 44 million views.
The videos cover a wide range of spurious allegations, including Democrats “rigging” the upcoming election against Trump, Kamala Harris stealing the Democratic nomination from Joe Biden through a “coup,” and rampant illegal voting from undocumented Americans. Roughly 30 percent of the videos flagged by Media Matters were also monetized through a combination of pre-roll ads and paid promotional content.
Video monetization can provide income to individuals largely shunned from mainstream outlets. Rudy Giuliani, for example, is noted as the study’s “most prolific election misinformer” responsible for 77 of the 286 reviewed videos. Trump’s disbarred former attorney appears to have particularly relied on YouTube’s lax guidelines to further claims of voter fraud and Democratic “cheating” over the past summer following the cancellation of his radio shows.
YouTube first announced a crackdown on election conspiracy theories in December 2020, but reversed course in June 2023. At the time, the company justified its decision by arguing that “while removing this content does curb some misinformation,” the company was more concerned about the “unintended effect of curtailing political speech without meaningfully reducing the risk of violence or other real-world harm.”
[Related: YouTube restricts kids’ ability to see some gun content.]
According to YouTube’s election misinformation policy page, the platform still prohibits misleading viewers about voting times, locations, and eligibility, as well as candidate requirements and incitement to interfere with election integrity. But while false US election-related allegations still get a free pass, YouTube for some reason still maintains bans on misinformation related to the 2021 German federal election, as well as the 2014, 2018, and 2022 Brazilian Presidential elections.
“Certain types of misleading or deceptive content with serious risk of egregious harm are not allowed on YouTube,” the company claims on its guidelines page, before later cautioning viewers to “Keep in mind that this isn’t a complete list.”
“YouTube and other social media platforms have repeatedly capitulated to right-wing pressure in the US—including rolling back policies and reinstating bad actors on the platforms—as right-wing media and politicians falsely accuse the platforms of being biased against them,” Kayla Gogarty, a research director at MMFA who oversaw the new study, said in a statement to Popular Science.
“Users should remember that bipartisan experts say US elections are secure, and they should rely on information from local and state officials and double verify any online news using reputable sources,” said Gogarty.
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