Ahead of Lok Sabha polls, YouTube approved ads with disinformation on Indian elections: Report

YouTube in India is failing to implement its policy on preventing misinformation related to elections from getting published on its platform, an investigation by rights groups Access Now and Global Witness has shown.

The groups submitted 48 advertisements in English, Hindi and Telugu to YouTube to test how the platforms deals with disinformation in India. The advertisements had content that was prohibited by YouTube’s policies on advertising and misinformation.

Despite this, all 48 of them were approved for publication. Access Now and Global Witness withdrew the advertisements before they were published.

One such advertisement falsely claimed that because of an increase in infectious diseases, all voters “will be automatically sent a mail-in ballot for the 2024 elections”. Another said that women could now vote by text message.

One advertisement also accused a religious group of offering bribes for votes. Another alleged that certain locations were hotspots for electoral fraud, and urged voters to help the police to “keep a sharp eye on these groups”.

All of the advertisements violated the community guidelines of Google, YouTube’s parent company.

The rights groups also pointed out that YouTube had successfully detected election disinformation in English and Spanish ahead of the midterm elections in the United States in 2022.

However, it had failed to detect similar content in Portuguese ahead of the...

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