Conservatives and advocates of the First Amendment’s free speech right in America are celebrating a triumph following YouTube’s announcement that it will stop censoring content that questions the accuracy of the 2020 election outcome.
YouTube will change course on the so-called “election misinformation content moderation policy” it established in 2020 to censor and deplatform anybody who dared to investigate the dubious 2020 election result, Axios reported Friday.
Owned by tech giant Google, YouTube will reportedly stop banning content that says fraud, errors or glitches occurred in U.S. elections, the company confirmed to Axios.
“Two years, tens of thousands of video removals, and one election cycle later, we recognized it was time to reevaluate the effects of this policy in today’s changed landscape,” YouTube said in a statement provided to Axios.
“With that in mind, and with 2024 campaigns well underway, we will stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past U.S. Presidential elections.”
Defenders of free speech and free and fair elections are declaring the decision as a victory. Ali Alexander—one of the key organizers of the Stop the Steal rally—hailed the move as a victory for the movement, claiming in a ds post that “Stop the Steal prevails.”
Retired General Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser under Trump who has been working tirelessly to expose the lack of integrity of that year’s elections, said YouTube—like many other “woke” organizations—was buckling under the “pain of reverse censorship.”
“We the people can move to other platforms,” he wrote on Twitter, a platform that had suspended his account until a decision by owner Elon Musk to reinstate him in January.
Others noted the timing of the decision, coming right as the 2024 presidential election cycle is beginning to get serious.
“It’s nice to see YouTube finally allowing free speech, but I can only assume it’s because the democrats are planning on losing in ’24 and want to be able to question the election without being silenced,” @Travis_in_Flint, a popular conservative Twitter user, wrote in response to the decision.