I'm not happy that it's come to this, but I can't say I blame Youtube for doing it. Everything's a mess from everybody's point of view, and Youtube has a big share of responsibility for the way things are, so I guess they chose to do something.
Is this the best way forward? Probably not. But atleast it's a firm, consistent, unambiguous stance, and not an entirely arbitrary one. Unless I'm mistaken, we've never had an election reach this point and then be overturned. Youtube is making a bet that this won't be the first, rather than sit around and abide the moving goalposts that will lead us to January 20th (and possibly even further than that).
Again, it's weird and awful that we've reached a point in society where a video hosting service feels the need to intervene on matters of "what's true" on behalf of the nation. And it's simultaneously weird and awful that our internet is such a monoculture that it's hard to find a high-quality service that exists in competition to this one.
But of the weird and awful things that have happened this year, this is pretty low on my list.
I do blame them, the same way I blame all social networks. People have always been ready to spread fringe content, but usually that content didn't go too far. What has changed now? Easy: the interest of social networks and platforms in having interactions above all. They have created the algorithms that give relevance to anything that creates activity, no matter what kind of activity (criticism and praise are evaluated the same). They have created the platforms that give a massive reach to anyone, real or not, with a single identity or with a hundred ones. They have created the incentives to favor views above content. They have created the models that will spam you with the "next thing you need to see" no matter what effect that has on you.
Now all of this is just a patch. The next conspiracy theory will come along, and the slightest effort at fighting it will just give it more relevance. The problem here is them. If they want to be serious about this, they should start by removing the mechanisms that are being abused. Of course, that would hurt their income and they don't care that much about the issue of misinformation.
Is this the best way forward? Probably not. But atleast it's a firm, consistent, unambiguous stance, and not an entirely arbitrary one. Unless I'm mistaken, we've never had an election reach this point and then be overturned. Youtube is making a bet that this won't be the first, rather than sit around and abide the moving goalposts that will lead us to January 20th (and possibly even further than that).
Again, it's weird and awful that we've reached a point in society where a video hosting service feels the need to intervene on matters of "what's true" on behalf of the nation. And it's simultaneously weird and awful that our internet is such a monoculture that it's hard to find a high-quality service that exists in competition to this one.
But of the weird and awful things that have happened this year, this is pretty low on my list.