YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, on Tuesday said it would reinstate creators previously banned for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and false election content.
“Reflecting the Company’s commitment to free expression, YouTube will provide an opportunity for all creators to rejoin the platform if the Company terminated their channels for repeated violations of COVID-19 and elections integrity policies that are no longer in effect,” the company said in a letter to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the House Judiciary Committee.
“YouTube values conservative voices on its platform and recognizes that these creators have extensive reach and play an important role in civic discourse. The Company recognizes these creators are among those shaping today’s online consumption, landing ‘must-watch’ interviews, giving viewers the chance to hear directly from politicians, celebrities, business leaders, and more,” it added in the five-page correspondence.
Steve Bannon, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and White House counterterrorism chief Sebastian Gorka were among those previously banned from the platform for content choices. Each has managed to draw followers to other media sites where they’ve maintained a large audience.
Alphabet blamed the Biden administration for limiting political speech on the platform.
“Senior Biden Administration officials, including White House officials, conducted repeated and sustained outreach to Alphabet and pressed the Company regarding certain user-generated content related to the COVID-19 pandemic that did not violate its policies,” the letter read.
“While the Company continued to develop and enforce its policies independently, Biden Administration officials continued to press the Company to remove non-violative user-generated content,” it continued.
Guidelines were changed after former President Biden took office and urged platforms to remove content that encouraged citizens to drink bleach to cure COVID-19, as President Trump suggested in 2020, or join insurrection efforts launched on Jan. 6, 2021, to overthrow his 2020 presidential win.
But the company said the Biden administration’s decisions were “unacceptable” and “wrong,” while noting it would forgo future fact-checking mechanisms and instead allow users to add context notes to content.
That tool has been heavily used by X, the social platform owned by Elon Musk.
Jordan on Tuesday described the changes as “another victory in the fight against censorship” and a “massive win” for the American people.
Both Meta and Twitter banned President Trump after Jan. 6; YouTube suspended his account for a week. When Musk bought Twitter and renamed it X in 2022, he welcomed back Trump, along with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Alex Jones. Meta allowed Trump back onto its platforms in 2023 as he campaigned for reelection.
Big Tech executives have been adjusting the guardrails surrounding free speech since last year. Many including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Musk have maintained a close proximity to Trump, donating to his inaugural efforts, holding closed-door meetings and employing its platforms for government use.
