YouTube says video claiming Trump victory doesn't violate misinformation rules

YouTube says a video from a right-leaning news outlet claiming President Trump won reelection doesn't violate its election misinformation policies and has allowed it to remain on the platform.

The clip, published Wednesday by One America News Network (OANN) and using an abbreviation for mainstream media, is titled "Trump Won. MSM hopes you don’t believe your eyes."

A winner in the 2020 presidential contest has yet to be called, and multiple states – including critical battlegrounds – are still counting ballots.

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Fox News' current projections show former Vice President Joe Biden leading the president with 264 Electoral College votes to Trump's 214.

"President Trump won four more years in office last night," One America reporter Christina Bobb says at the beginning of the Wednesday video, which has since been labeled: "Results may not be final."

The post has garnered almost 67,000 views.

The story was first reported by CNBC.

"Our community guidelines prohibit content misleading viewers about voting – for example, content aiming to mislead voters about the time, place, means or eligibility requirements for voting – or false claims that could materially discourage voting," YouTube spokeswoman Ivy Choi told FOX Business. "The content of this video doesn't rise to that level."

While the video will stay up, it will run without ads. According to YouTube, ads are prohibited on content with incorrect election-related information. The Google-owned company said that policy covers the clip since this year's results haven't been called.

In a post about the streaming site's "commitments," YouTube wrote that it would "raise up authoritative voices" and highlight quality journalism using Top News and Breaking News shelves, expand fact check information panels to the United States and show panels linking to third-party sources regarding on issues prone to misinformation.

YouTube's policies prohibit creators or organizations from using “thumbnails, description or tags to trick users into believing the content is something it is not."

According to a source familiar with the situation, YouTube has "rigorously enforced" its Community Guideline standards that govern videos on the site, removing those that violate the standards, "regardless of who expresses it."

The source added that YouTube gives short previews of articles on the streaming platform, while highlighting quality journalism in the Top News and Breaking News sections.

Google, YouTube and peers such as Twitter and Facebook has come under scrutiny for silencing the voices of conservatives, including most recently last month, when CEO Sundar Pichai, along with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey were grilled by lawmakers.

All three CEOs testified were asked to testify before a Senate panel on whether Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act should be repealed or whether the federal shield "has outlived its usefulness in today’s digital age."

Section 230 has allowed the social media giants, as well as internet service providers, to be shielded from liability on content posted by third parties to their platforms, though that has come under criticism from some conservatives who believe the platforms are censoring their viewpoints.

On Oct. 29, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said, "It is clear that section 230 in its current form is no longer working."

Separately, the platforms have also been under pressure to ensure accurate information after U.S. intelligence agencies said the businesses were exploited by Russian agents spreading false claims in the 2016 election.

Twitter, for its part, has promised to label or hide posts with misleading information and has restricted many tweets from President Trump since Tuesday.

Alternatively, Facebook has presented users with a range of new policies and its own Voting Information Center.

The Menlo Park, California-based company announced it would label any premature victory announcements, turn off political group recommendations and temporarily pause political ads.

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Facebook currently has more than 2.6 billion users and Twitter has around 330 million, according to statistics from e-commerce company Oberlo.

YouTube has more than 2 billion users, according to its Press Center.