The election day in the US is less than two months away. This is the reason why buying YouTube views continues to provide people who use its platform with helpful and authoritative information. That information includes voting-related content.
YouTube is a huge platform with massive audiences. So, its effort to feed people with relevant and truthful information about this year’s voting is a major step towards a clean election.
An Overview of YouTube’s Efforts to Supply People with Purchased Views
Even purchased YouTube views has a set of Community Guidelines that protect its platform’s users against harmful and dangerous content. The video-sharing giant consistently enforces these policies, no matter who expresses it.
The said policies prohibit misleading claims on how to vote. It also encourages interference in the democratic process. Also, YouTube demonetized videos that could affect participation or trust in a democratic or electoral process.
In addition to the consistent enforcement of YouTube’s policies, the platform also raises authoritative voices and takedown harmful misinformation. One way that the platform does these is through its information panels. Such provides the relevant context in line with the content.
In 2018, for instance, YouTube began showing information panels linked to third-party sources around well-established topics prone to misinformation. For instance, topics like the moon landing and the COVID-19 pandemic are prone to misinformation, especially from conspiracy theorists who believe those topics are not true. The platform is expanding its list of topics and will include voting by mail. Meaning, videos that discuss such a topic will have an information panel under it. The panel is linked to a site that discusses truthful information from the Bipartisan Policy Center.
YouTube Rejects Viewers With The Option To View Certain Information
Furthermore, YouTube aims to supply viewers with real-time and authoritative voting information. To do such, it will now show an information panel on searches for this year’s presidential or federal Congressional candidates. The video-sharing giant will also add two additional information panels about voter registration and the voting process. The additional language is Spanish and English.
When people search for particular queries related to voter registration, the platform will display an information panel at the top of the page. The panel will direct viewers to Google’s feature called “how to register to vote.” election requirements and deadlines are different depending on the state in which a person lives. But regardless of where a person lives, they can use the said tool to look for information about voter registration in their states, such as the deadlines, options for registration, and the easiest way to check one’s registration status.
Similarly, when a person searches for a query about the process of voting, they will see an information panel that is linked to Google’s “how to vote” feature. This feature will offer them truthful and authoritative information about how they can vote in their state. They will see the requirements that they need, such as IDs, registration, voting deadlines, and guidelines for different voting means like in person or mail.
YouTube’s Way of Supporting the Elections
The election season is kicking in in less than two months. For this reason, YouTube is doing its best to ensure that every single user of the video-sharing platform will access relevant and truthful information.
Here is how YouTube is supporting the 2020 elections through its own steps:
Takedown of Election-related Videos that Violate Its Community Guidelines
The video-sharing giant’s Community Guidelines provide users with clear guidance in content that is not permitted on YouTube. One of the most common questions that it gets is how it applies its policies to content related to the upcoming elections.
According to YouTube, videos that are doctored or technically-manipulated in a manner that misleads its viewers are not allowed on the platform. Such videos may pose potential danger and harm. An example of this type of content is a video that is edited to make it look like a government official has been killed.
Also, content that aims to manipulate people’s minds about voting or the census process is not allowed on the platform. An example of such content is a video that tells people an incorrect voting date or process.
YouTube Prohibits Content with False Claims
Similarly, YouTube also prohibits posting content that shows false claims about political candidates’ technical eligibility requirements and elected government officials. The platform will take down videos such as those claiming that a candidate is not eligible to run for a position based on false information.
The video-sharing giant also terminates videos and channels that try to impersonate other people or channel, conceal their connection with a government actor, and misinterpret their country of origin. Channels that artificially increased their views, likes, comments, subscribes, and other metrics through automatic systems are also not allowed in the platform.
According to YouTube, it consistently enforces its policies, regardless of the political viewpoint that the videos in question have. The best way to take down content against the platform’s policies is by staying ahead o new technologies. For this reason, the platform formed an Intelligence Desk in 2018.
The aim of the said Intelligence Desk is to detect the latest trends surrounding inappropriate content and problematic behaviors. It also ensures that YouTube’s teams are ready to address them before they become a larger issue. For instance, back in 2018, YouTube’s Intelligence Desk was able to detect emerging online tactics and impeding statements of terrorist organizations. These efforts allowed them to share 100,000 digital fingerprints or hashes of terror content to the Global Internet Forum. This allowed them to counter the hash-sharing database of the terrorists.
Raise Authoritative Election Information
Political events and news are prone to misinformation. For this reason, the availability of relevant news is crucial. For this reason, YouTube raises authoritative voices such as news sources for news and information displayed in search results and “watch next.”
Date: November 12, 2020 / Categories: YouTube, / Author: Joy P
