YouTube illustration. - Yichuan Cao / Sipa USA / SIPA

One step closer to reliability? As Iowa "caucuses" mark the start of the Democratic primary season for the US presidential poll in November, YouTube has announced a ban on "manipulated or falsified" election content.

In a blog note, the video platform, owned by Google, said that these measures were being taken to make YouTube "a more reliable source" of information and to promote "healthy political discourse".

Videos banned from the platform

Leslie Miller, vice president of public affairs for YouTube, said that "content that has been technically manipulated or tampered with to deceive users" and "that poses a flagrant risk of harm" will be banned. For example, a video wrongly claiming that a politician has died will be removed from the platform.

Content intended to deceive voters about the vote or the census, as well as content containing false statements on the technical eligibility criteria, will also be prohibited by YouTube.

Hunting for fake news

In another press release, Google's online safety and security official Kristie Canegallo stressed that the number one search engine has stepped up efforts to contain abuse and false information on content related to elections. "Our safety and security teams are deployed across the globe to monitor and stop account hacking, fraudulent activity, disinformation campaigns, coordinated attacks and other forms of abuse on our platform, 24 24 hours a day, "said Kristie Canegallo.

"We take seriously our responsibility to protect our users from damage and abuse, especially during the elections," she said. Kristie Canegallo added that Google is working with other tech companies and government agencies, including the FBI, to "identify malicious actors, deactivate their accounts, warn our users, and share relevant information with specialists. industry and law enforcement. "

Giants go on the offensive

Accused by many critics of allowing false information to spread on their platforms during the 2016 US presidential election, several giants of Silicon Valley announced measures to better combat these dangers before the 2020 election.

Facebook, which is the subject of the most intense criticism, announced in December that it would ban all content, published by users or advertisers, that could disrupt the census, such as false information or incitement to opt out.

The Californian group, however, refused to censor political announcements, which it has been highly criticized for. Twitter took the opposite of Facebook by banning political ads.

Google, for its part, has placed restrictions on overly narrow targeting of voters for this type of ad.

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