YouTube intends to interfere in the 2022 midterm elections by promoting so-called “authoritative” sources over independent, non-establishment sources.
In a memo published on Sept. 1st, YouTube official Leslie Miller describes how the video-sharing platform “is connecting people to authoritative information and limiting the spread of harmful misinformation related to the 2022 U.S. midterm elections.”
The memo begins with Miller specifically describing the previous steps the platform has taken to limit the spread of so-called “misinformation.”
“At YouTube, we’re constantly working to make sure we can be a reliable source for timely news and information. That’s why over the years we’ve built policies, systems and teams that raise authoritative content and limit the spread of harmful misinformation,” the memo reads.
Supporting elections is always a top priority at YouTube. For the upcoming midterms, our dedicated elections team has been working hard to make sure we’re a reliable source for news & info and limiting misinformation. Sharing details in our blog post: https://t.co/OC5gh2xtsS
— YouTubeInsider (@YouTubeInsider) September 1, 2022
The memo continues with Miller describing the specific steps YouTube intends to take to limit the spread of “misinformation” going into the 2022 elections.
“Our driving goal is for viewers to have access to high-quality election news and information. When you search for midterms content on YouTube, our systems are prominently recommending content coming from authoritative national and local news sources like PBS NewsHour, The Wall Street Journal, Univision and local ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates,” it reads.
“This same approach goes for videos in your ‘watch next’ panels. Working in tandem, our systems are also limiting the spread of harmful election misinformation by identifying borderline content and keeping it from being widely recommended.”
Notice Miller’s choices of what constitutes an “authoritative” source: establishment outlets like ABC, CBS, and NBC.
The problem is that these outlets are biased to the left. Moreover, as often noted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, they have their own sordid history of disseminating vast quantities of “misinformation” and “disinformation.”
Regarding the Russian collusion delusion hoax and conspiracy theory, for instance, the most “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and outright lies originated with the establishment press.
Conversely, the most accurate, valid reporting came from the non-establishment outlets that were willing to challenge its flawed premises.
Good morning. I’d like to make 3 points:
1) The vast majority of disinformation, propaganda and lies that flooded the country over the last 5 years did not come from MAGA boomers on Facebook or 4Chan teenagers but the largest and most influential liberal corporate media outlets.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 7, 2021
2) These are not cases where media outlets erred. They deliberately lied. The way to know that is they refuse to acknowledge evidence proving they lied.
Remember they just *ignored* @SchreckReports‘ book proving the Biden emails were real. Now this:https://t.co/YZNZPo8FOg
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 7, 2021
3) By far the best and most accurate reporting on all matters relating to Russiagate came not from the liberal corporate outlets that want to censor the internet in the name of disinformation or which shower themselves with Pulitzers for lies, but from the right-wing press.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 7, 2021
The memo from YouTube’s Miller continues with her vowing to remove “election content that violates our policies.”
“This includes misleading voters on how to vote, encouraging interference in the democratic process, inciting violence, or advancing certain types of elections misinformation. We enforce our policies consistently for everyone, regardless of the speaker’s public figure status or their political viewpoint,” the memo reads.
This, too, is problematic chiefly because of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Recall that in the months leading up to the 2020 presidential election, bombshell news about then-Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son emerged suggesting impropriety and corruption by both him and his son.
Yet this information was censored by the establishment media and a whole host of social media sites and platforms on the basis that it constituted “misinformation” and “disinformation.”
Not included in YouTube’s memo is any explanation of how exactly it intends to prevent the same thing from happening again.
The way liberal journalists just ignore what was, to me, one of the most repressive events of the Trump years — Big Tech **censored** reporting on the Hunter Biden docs about Joe’s business deals to help Dems — is still stunning. 3 weeks before the election, they barred links. https://t.co/WKWlkU01be
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 9, 2021
Twitter literally prohibited all links to reports about the Biden docs, not just publicly but in DMs. FB announced — through a life-long Dem operative — it would algorithmically suppress the story pending a fact-check (which never came). It was brute censorship to elect Biden.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 9, 2021
The memo concludes with Miller describing some of the actions YouTube has already carried out in regard to removing “misinformation.”
“We’ve already removed a number of videos related to the midterms for violating our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service. This includes videos that violated our election integrity policy by claiming widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, or alleging the election was stolen or rigged,” it reads.
The problem is that polling data has consistently shown that a majority of Republicans believe the 2020 election was indeed “rigged” in some fashion or another. Why do they believe this? Partly because of what happened to the Hunter Biden laptop story, and partly because of this:
Stunning: TIME admits well-funded cabal of influencers worked behind-the-scenes to ‘save’ 2020 election https://t.co/WpYXQUfH0K
— Bo Snerdley (@BoSnerdley) February 5, 2021
The point is, there are legitimate reasons to question the validity of the 2020 presidential election. Yet on Twitter, these reasons can’t even be discussed, let alone mentioned. How is that fair? It’s not, and that’s the point …
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