YouTube quietly made changes to its moderation policies last December, ahead of President Donald Trump’s second term.

According to The New York Times, which reviewed internal documents, YouTube is allowing content containing political, social, and cultural issues that would have been subject to removal under previous guidelines to remain on the platform. 

YouTube is allowing this type of content to remain on its platform as long as it is considered to be in the public’s interest. The threshold for these videos has been extended from one-quarter of a video to one-half of a video.

In a statement to the Times, Nicole Bell, a spokesperson for the Google-owned platform, said, “Recognizing that the definition of ‘public interest’ is always evolving, we update our guidance for these exceptions to reflect the new types of discussion we see on the platform today.” 

She added, “Our goal remains the same: to protect free expression on YouTube while mitigating egregious harm.”

For years, conservative circles decried the moderation techniques employed by the various social media platforms, bemoaning that the takedown of their content was agenda-driven and a form of censorship.

With the transition to the Trump administration, the rigid stances employed by various platforms have been jettisoned in favor of a more loose approach.

YouTube joins Meta’s Instagram and Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, in relaxing their moderation guidelines. 

Those platforms shifted from employing fact-checkers to having community members vet the veracity of content posted on their sites.