It’s not exactly hard to find politically conservative content on YouTube, but the platform may soon skew even further to the right. YouTube parent Alphabet has confirmed that it will restore channels that were banned in recent years for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and elections. Alphabet says it values free expression and political debate, placing the blame for its previous moderation decisions on the Biden administration.
Alphabet made this announcement via a lengthy letter to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). The letter, a response to subpoenas from the House Judiciary Committee, explains in no uncertain terms that the company is taking a more relaxed approach to moderating political content on YouTube.
For starters, Alphabet denies that its products and services are biased toward specific viewpoints and that it “appreciates the accountability” provided by the committee. The cloying missive goes on to explain that Google didn’t really want to ban all those accounts, but Biden administration officials just kept asking. Now that the political tables have turned, Google is looking to dig itself out of this hole.
According to Alphabet’s version of events, misinformation such as telling people to drink bleach to cure COVID wasn’t initially against its policies. However, Biden officials repeatedly asked YouTube to take action. YouTube banned COVID misinformation through 2024, one year longer than the crackdown on election conspiracy theories. Alphabet says that today, YouTube’s rules permit a “wider range of content.”
In an apparent attempt to smooth things over with the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee, YouTube will restore the channels banned for COVID and election misinformation. This includes prominent conservatives like Dan Bongino, who is now the Deputy Director of the FBI, and White House counterterrorism chief Sebastian Gorka.