This October, some of YouTube’s most-watched live streams will come from a Georgia courtroom. Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee has ruled that recording devices will be allowed at Donald Trump‘s upcoming trial.
According to Engadget, the court will operate an official feed that will be broadcast on YouTube. Trump and 18 co-defendants will be tried on multiple racketeering charges after allegedly conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. The Peach State’s DA, Fanni Harris, has said that the Trump team devised “a criminal enterprise” to challenge the will of the voters. The trial is slated to begin on October 23.
McAfee’s decision will aid the media members who are expected to flock to Georgia for the proceedings. “Having received requests to use cellphones and laptops for non-recording purposes and finding that such use will not disrupt the administration of justice, it is hereby authorized that all parties and spectators are allowed to use recording devices…for non-recording purposes throughout the duration of this case,” reads the ruling.
If the official Trump trial stream gets big viewership on YouTube — and given the nature of the allegations, that seems like a safe bet — it will become the latest in a series of viral court broadcasts. According to data from Streams Charts, the contentious legal battle between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard accrued 83.9 million hours of watch time.
The Trump trial’s arrival on YouTube will add another layer to an ever-evolving discourse. YouTube has spent the past two years figuring out how to moderate videos that claim the 2020 election was stolen. YouTube initially struggled to contain that conspiracy — which is known as “the big lie” — before implementing a ban that produced mixed results. A controversial rollback earlier this year loosed YouTube’s policy on election misinformation. The Fulton County court stream will arrive in the middle of YouTube’s contentious political environment.
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