Republican candidates’ election lies and conspiracy theories violated YouTube’s misinformation policy — which resulted in the forum being removed from its platform.
PENNSYLVANIA — The GOP gubernatorial candidates forum last week was so extreme and focused on dangerous conspiracy theories that YouTube removed the video recording of the forum, citing that it violates their misinformation policy.
The GOP candidates for Governor have made pandering to Trump’s lies a staple of their campaigns, championing repeatedly disproven election conspiracies to insurrectionists, extremists, and even Trump himself. Doug Mastriano’s efforts earned him a congressional subpoena, and now, a forum with seven of the candidates has violated YouTube’s misinformation policy.
In case you missed it, check out The Philadelphia Inquirer’s new reporting on YouTube’s removal of last week’s GOP gubernatorial forum hosted by extreme anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ+ group, the PA Family Institute.
By Chris Brennan, 03/28/22
The first question posed to Republicans running for governor in Pennsylvania during a forum Thursday: How would they “restore election integrity?”
YouTube apparently didn’t like some of the answers.
The social media video platform on Sunday took down a video of the forum, telling the Pennsylvania Family Institute, which hosted the event, it “violates our misinformation policy.”
Institute president Michael Geer said that notice advised: “Content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches change the outcome of the US 2020 presidential election is not allowed on YouTube.”
[…]
It was not immediately clear which part of event crossed YouTube’s line. It might have been talk of mail ballots spurring voter fraud, a common and debunked claim about the 2020 election.
Former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta of Hazleton claimed mail ballots are used “to steal elections.” He also dug up that often-cited prevarication about dead people casting ballots.
“We know dead people have been voting in Pennsylvania all our lives,” Barletta said, drawing chuckles from the crowd at Cairn University in Langhorne. “Now they don’t even have to leave the cemetery to vote. They can mail in their ballots.”
Seven of the nine Republicans in the primary attended, with most complaining about the 2019 state law that allowed for no-excuse mail ballots and prompted a 2020 wave of disproven claims about voter fraud.
Attacking that law has become a mainstream Republican talking point, including from the two candidates who skipped the forum but voted in favor of mail ballots in 2019 — State Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R., Centre) and Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin).
Dave White, a former member of the Delaware County Council who participated in the forum, on Monday denounced “leftists in Big Tech trying to silence conservatives.”
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