In response to pressure from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, Google’s parent company sent a letter explaining the nature of the decisions YouTube had taken to remove accounts under government pressure.
Alphabet (the parent company of Google and YouTube) “has a commitment to freedom of expression,” it says. “This commitment is unwavering and will not bend to political pressure.” Under the Biden Administration, White House officials “conducted repeated and sustained outreach … regarding certain user-generated content related to the Covid-19 pandemic that did not violate its policies.” It is wrong for any government to tell companies how to moderate their content, the letter says.
It recounts the dates at which it rolled back its new policies: several Covid policies ended in 2023, and the rest ended in December 2024. In June 2023, YouTube again allowed discussion of election fraud, including in the 2020 presidential election. Content creators whose channels were shut down for Covid or election-related reasons are now able to rejoin the platform.
The letter ends by noting the Judiciary Committee’s investigation into the EU’s Digital Services Act, which, Alphabet says, “place[s] a disproportionate regulatory burden on American companies.” The law could require Alphabet and others to remove lawful content.
