Video platforms tested as election misinformation runs rampant
Video platforms tested as election misinformation runs rampant
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Amid an intense effort by social media platforms to curb misinformation around the US election, political operatives were finding loopholes in YouTube and other video platforms.
Google-owned YouTube has come under scrutiny for leaving online one video from a far-right media group claiming Donald Trump had won Tuesday’s election, along with content from others close to the president challenging the integrity of the vote-counting process.
Days after the vote, challenger Joe Biden was closing in on victory as Trump launched unsubstantiated claims of fraud and made it clear he was not ready to concede.
Social media watchdogs say other videos containing falsehoods have circulated on TikTok and Facebook livestreams, but the biggest concerns have been raised around YouTube, the behemoth of online video.
"It seems like YouTube has done appreciably worse at policing disinformation around the election including from the president compared with Twitter or Facebook, both of which have been very aggressive in responding to the moment," said Daniel Kreiss, a researcher with the University of North Carolina’s Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life.
The watchdog group Media Matters for America listed a series of questionable videos that YouTube left online, saying the snippets had received more than one million views this week.
"YouTube videos pushing misinformation about the results of the 2020 presidential election have received high combined view counts, despite the platform’s community guidelines prohibiting ‘content that aims to mislead people about voting,’" said Media Matters analyst Alex Kaplan in a blog post Thursday.
