Kalakshar US

In a Friday afternoon news dump, YouTube inexplicably announced today that 2020 election denialism is a-okay. The company says it “carefully deliberated this change” without offering any specifics on its reasons for the about-face. YouTube initially banned content disputing the results of the 2020 election in December of that year.

In a feeble attempt to explain its decision, the company wrote that it “recognized it was time to reevaluate the effects of this policy in today’s changed landscape. In the current environment, we find that while removing this content does curb some misinformation, it could also have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech without meaningfully reducing the risk of violence or other real-world harm. 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 US Presidential elections.”

Misinformation and disinformation are harmful on a societal level. They lure people into a false-reality bubble of “alternative facts” where the despots are the “good guys” and those supporting democracy are corrupt or untrustworthy. Failing that, it can leave people too confused to know what is and isn’t real; that type of gaslighting is nearly as beneficial to authoritarian movements as drawing in rabid supporters.

If YouTube found some data that somehow reveals the dissemination of election denialism isn’t harmful after all, it would seem appropriate for the company to reveal that. But short of that, all we have is YouTube’s claim that it “carefully deliberated” this move.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-changes-misinformation-policy-to-allow-videos-falsely-claiming-fraud-in-the-2020-us-election-184319851.html?src=rss 

Twitter lost its executive in charge of content moderation on the platform, Ella Irwin, earlier this week. In another sign of instability in Twitter’s upper ranks, it looks like yet another top executive is leaving the company. The Wall Street Journal reports that A.J. Brown, who was in charge of Twitter’s brand safety and ad quality, decided to leave the company on Friday. Brown was reportedly in charge of making sure Twitter was a safe place for advertisers to place their ads. At the time of writing, she has not officially given a reason as to why she has decided to exit the company.

Since Elon Musk took over, Twitter has struggled to keep advertisers on the platform. It was reported earlier this year that over 500 of the company’s top advertisers have paused spending on the platform. At the time, Twitter owner Elon Musk said that the company planned to break even within the year.

It’s not just advertisers that have concerns about the future of the platform. Some brands and users have ultimately decided to abandon Twitter entirely over concerns over how Musk handles content moderation on the platform.

The departure leaves incoming CEO Linda Yaccarino in an interesting spot. Yacacarino, previously in charge of ad sales at NBCUniversal, has said in the past that brand safety is a top priority for advertisers. Given that advertising is Twitter’s main way of making money, it’ll be interesting to see how she handles this situation.

After Elon Musk’s takeover last year, Twitter seemingly has been in a scramble to try and keep the social media platform afloat. The company has reportedly let go of a vast majority of its workforce and cut off third-party app support. Not to mention, Twitter is charging an exorbitant amount of money for those who want to use its API and is trying to get users to pay $8 per month for a “premium” experience on the platform.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitters-head-of-brand-safety-and-ad-quality-has-left-the-company-191401704.html?src=rss