Google on Tuesday promised to restore YouTube accounts that have been banned for political speech, admitting that the Biden administration pressured it to censor Americans that did not violate the company’s terms of service, in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH).
“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if the company terminated their channels for repeated violations of COVID-19 and elections integrity policies that are no longer in effect,” a lawyer representing Google wrote to Jordan.
The letter would likely affect pro-Trump political commentators such as White House counterterrorism chief Sebastian Gorka, War Room host Steve Bannon, and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, whom were banned over speech relating to the coronavirus pandemic or election-related content.
YouTube had banned Bongino, who moved to alternative video streaming platform Rumble, over alleging spreading misinformation about masks during the coronavirus pandemic.
Google’s video platform said it “values conservative voices on its platform” and admitted that the creators “have extensive reach and play an important role in civic discourse.”
Google then admitted that the Biden administration pressured the big tech company to remove alleged misinformation relating to the pandemic.
“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 lawyer wrote to Jordan.
The lawyer said that the President Joe Biden and his officials “created a political atmosphere that sought to influence the actions of platforms based on their concerns regarding misinformation.”
Google said that Jordan and the Judiciary Committee have “taken important steps to highlight that onerous obligations under laws such as the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act may stifle innovation and restrict access to information.”
Jordan had recently told Breitbart News that the European Union and the United Kingdom are acting “exactly” like the Biden administration in pushing big tech platforms to censor free speech.
Jordan wrote on X, “Due to our oversight efforts, GOOGLE commits to offer ALL creators previously kicked off YouTube due to political speech violations to return to the platform. BUT THAT’S NOT ALL.”
Read the full article here