Advertisement

Updated November 6th, 2020 at 13:12 IST

US Election 2020: YouTube channels make money from ads promoting Trump voting fraud claims

While the key states are still tallying ballots, several YouTube channels were promoting debunked accusation about voting fraud in the US presidential race.

Reported by: Bhavya Sukheja
US Election 2020
| Image:self
Advertisement

While the key states are still tallying ballots, several YouTube channels were promoting debunked accusation about voting fraud in the US presidential race. While the Associated Press and other organisations deemed the video content false or inaccurate, YouTubers were seen promoting conspiratorial content that could jeopardise advertising and memberships revenue they got from the video service platform. 

Social media websites, including Google, Facebook and Twitter, have struggled to guard against the misinformation as millions of posts arrive each day. YouTube, which is owned by Alphabet Inc’s Google, also has rules that forbid channels using its revenue-generation tools from making “claims that are demonstrably false and could significantly undermine participation or trust in an electoral or democratic process”.  As no action was taken against such ads and membership sales on the channels, researchers who track misinformation said that it is fuelled by content creators who see and an opportunity to profit from it. 

READ: US Coronavirus Cases Surge Amid Election Battle

YouTube’s policy on “demonstrably false” election information drew attention when CNBC reported that One American News Network was generating ad revenue from its YouTube video prematurely declaring President Donald Trump the winner. The video service platform said that it would not remove the clip, but stopped running ads on it. 

As false and unfounded claims have evolved over the course of Election Day, critics believe that in environment explicitly built to promote instant sharing and viral posts, disclaimers do not cut it. It was noted that initially, Trump had said that he had “won” even though vote counting is still ongoing. Then the US President even said that unanticipated mail-in votes were appearing out of nowhere, but in fact, they were long expected. 

READ: US Election 2020: Phoenix Protesters Chant 'stop The Illegal Vote'

MAGA-supporters share unfounded allegations of fraud 

Trump has made unsubstantiated accusations about the Democratic Party’s stealing the election. MAGA-supporters have also rallied behind the misinformation on social media and in protests outside vote-counting sites. Throughout the course of the day, Trump and his supporters have repeatedly tried to flood the internet with unfounded allegations of fraud. Twitter even marked three of Trump’s latest tweets, including the one making a false claim about “surprise ballot dumps,” as potentially “misleading about an election or other civic process”.

The attempts at policing those declarations began early on Wednesday when Twitter hid a Trump tweet that claimed: “we are BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election”. Twitter restricted the post and instead displayed the message "Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process”. The micro-blogging website had said that it had suspended the accounts for violating its policy against the “coordination” by posting content while engaging in some automated behaviour.

READ: Patrick Mahomes' Mom Rants Online As Joe Biden Closes In On Election Victory

READ: US Election 2020: Donald Trump's Sons Accuse Republicans Of Not Standing In Defence

Advertisement

Published November 6th, 2020 at 13:13 IST

Your Voice. Now Direct.

Send us your views, we’ll publish them. This section is moderated.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Trending Quicks

Congress Press Conference
a few seconds ago
Virat Kohli's text to RCB owners got WPL team to unbox event
2 minutes ago
Pakistan and the IMF agree on a $1.1 billion disbursement for the debt-ridden economy.
3 minutes ago
Millet
6 minutes ago
Lok Sabha Elections 2024 LIVE
13 minutes ago
IndiGo direct flight between Mumbai and Ayodhya
16 minutes ago
former dsp shailendra singh revealed criminal activity of Mukhtar Ansari
18 minutes ago
IBL Finance IPO
22 minutes ago
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell
27 minutes ago
RBI
37 minutes ago
TCS 'cash for jobs' scam
44 minutes ago
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Whatsapp logo