YouTube to remove presidential election conspiracy theory videos

Any videos uploaded before Wednesday will be allowed to stay up, however.

YouTube has announced it will begin to remove conspiracy videos which cast doubt on the legitimacy of the US presidential election. Since Joe Biden was projected winner on 7 November, incumbent President Donald Trump and his campaign team have launched a series of challenges against the result. Trump has yet to formally concede defeat, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Trump has consistently called the election 'fake', and in a 45-minute speech made last week said the US electoral system was 'under coordinated attack and siege'. No evidence of wrongdoing has been uncovered. [caption id="attachment_257783" align="alignnone" width="2048"] Donald Trump made unsubstantiated allegations that the US electoral system was 'under siege'. (Photo: Getty)[/caption] The conspiracies generally relate to the use of postal ballots, which the Trump team say has been 'fraudulent' - but again, these claims are unsubstantiated. A Trump campaign press conference alleging electoral fraud was cut off mid-speech by Fox News, itself a prominent right-wing media network. The Trump team filed legal claims against states it deemed guilty of 'fraudulent' electoral practices. Again, none of these claims have been proven. In certain states such as Wisconsin, Trump paid $3 million of his own money towards a recount, hoping it would uncover more votes that, in his opinion, had been omitted from the election. The Wisconsin recount merely uncovered a few hundred more Biden votes. Now, any videos or content posted on YouTube containing misleading information about the US presidential election will be removed. However, any uploads posted before Wednesday will be allowed to stay up on the platform. A statement from YouTube reads: "Yesterday was the safe harbor deadline for the U.S. Presidential election and enough states have certified their election results to determine a President-elect. "Given that, we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today (or anytime after) that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election."