OPINION: YouTube changes policy on false claims, but we should know better by now

Jun. 9—A man landed on the moon. Tupac Shakur, like Elvis, is dead. Tragically, mass shootings are real, not false flag operations.

Though you can find videos on YouTube suggesting these facts should be questioned, most of us are smart enough to separate reality from fiction.

And while the majority of Americans believe that President Joe Biden fairly won the 2020 election, we'll again be tested with false claims that the contest was stolen from former President Donald Trump as his campaign rhetoric ramps up. YouTube isn't going to stand in the way.

In a June 2 blog post, YouTube announced that it will no longer remove inaccurate posts about elections.

"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," YouTube said in the post. "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 U.S. presidential elections."

As an aside, this statement sums up what journalists have been screaming for years. You can't trust social media to monitor posts, which means false information can spread like wildfire on platforms like YouTube. The Google-owned company concedes it will no longer remove disinformation, which is a red flag to those who value truth.

But it's also a call for knowledge. It's not YouTube's job to educate us about fact and fiction. YouTube is an entertainment platform and a great source for music and how-to videos, but it shouldn't be considered a go-to source for truth and accurate information.

There are ample resources for educating ourselves on elections. From court rulings to investigative reports by real journalists, we know the truth about 2020. Someone uploading a poor quality video from their parents' basement shouldn't convince us otherwise.

We must be wary of what we see on the internet, and not just in terms of YouTube videos, but also other platforms on social media.

With more than 2.6 billion active users, it would be nearly impossible for YouTube to monitor each post. But it's not asking too much for us to be mindful of fact and fiction.

Trump has made it clear that he will continue to make false claims about the 2020 election as he seeks to win back the Oval Office. We have plenty of resources available for discerning his lies from reality.

And if we need a stress reliever during what will likely be another bitter election cycle, YouTube has a lot of cute cat videos.