Impossibility Theorem Strikes Again: YouTube Deletes January 6th Committee Video

from the impossibility-theorem-never-fails dept Content moderation at scale is impossible to do well says my impossibility theorem. And, basically every day we see more examples of this in action. The latest is that the NY Times reports how YouTube took down a video that the January 6th House Select Committee had posted to the site, detailing many of the lies Donald Trump made about the 2020 election. The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot has been trying to draw more eyes to its televised hearings by uploading clips of the proceedings online. But YouTube has removed one of those videos from its platform, saying the committee was advancing election misinformation. The excerpt, which was uploaded June 14, included recorded testimony from former Attorney General William P. Barr. But the problem for YouTube was that the video also included a clip of former President Donald J. Trump sharing lies about the election on the Fox Business channel. It’s not difficult to figure out how this played out. Back in December of 2020, YouTube changed its policies to ban videos that claimed there was election fraud. You can agree or disagree with this policy, but YouTube realized that disingenuous smear merchants were…
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