Democrats challenged the results of the 2000 and 2004 elections, and outright launched an investigation into their conspiracy theories involving the 2016 election that involved the DOJ and federal agencies. Part of this soft coup also criminalized “misinformation” under the guise of claiming that misinformation somehow changed the outcome of the 2016 election. Fast forward to 2020, and the Left used the charge of misinformation to censor anyone questioning the results of the 2020 election.

Now, with the 2024 election underway and Biden polling poorly, Google’s YouTube suddenly decided that it’s time to legalize election denial.

“Today we are announcing a new set of updates on YouTube to address and protect our community — providing a home for open discussion and debate during the ongoing election season.

“When we craft our policies, we always keep two goals in mind: protecting our community, and providing a home for open discussion and debate. These goals are sometimes in tension with each other, and there is perhaps no area where striking a balance is more complex than political speech. The ability to openly debate political ideas, even those that are controversial or based on disproven assumptions, is core to a functioning democratic society–especially in the midst of election season.”

That’s oddly liberal of Google. It discarded the very notion that “the ability to openly debate political ideas, even those that are controversial or based on disproven assumptions, is core to a functioning democratic society” and even while it will now allow challenging election results, it’s still censoring a host of non-leftist views, including those involving global warming.

“We first instituted a provision of our elections misinformation policy focused on the integrity of past US Presidential elections in December 2020, once the states’ safe harbor date for certification had passed. Two years, tens of thousands of video removals, and one election cycle later, we recognized it was time to reevaluate the effects of this policy in today’s changed landscape. 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. 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 US Presidential elections.”

At no point in time did Google censor claims about the 2016 election or the 2000 election. It limited its censorship to conservatives questioning races that were awarded to leftists.

Period. Full stop.

There’s no apparent reason for Google to change course other than perhaps a risk fo falling afoul of Big Tech censorship laws passed in some states like Florida and Texas, which are still being disputed, but, much more likely a response to the 2024 election.

With Biden polling badly, Big Tech wants to create a safe harbor for the next wave of election denialism (which won’t be called that and which will be even more massive and comprehensive than in 2016).

But if Biden wins, then questioning the results will be banned again.

There’s a simple guide to “election denialism”. It’s always banned when conservatives do it, it’s always legit when leftists do it.

There are two sets of rules and the only governing principle behind them is politics.