Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights.
Slamming Joe Biden for putting pressure on the company, YouTube is planning to allow channels previously banned for misinformation back on the site.
Parent company Alphabet has written to the House Judiciary Committee alleging that it was pressurized into taking down misinformation on the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 election -- content that it said didn't violate its policies at the time.
"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 reads.
"It is unacceptable and wrong when any government, including the Biden Administration, attempts to dictate how the Company moderates content, and the Company has consistently fought against those efforts on First Amendment grounds."
And, said Alphabet, it planned to offer a route for these banned accounts, along with those banned for violating community guidelines on election-integrity-related content, to be reinstated. There's no detail on the processes it would use to do this.
However, the company said on X, "This will be a limited pilot project that will be available to a subset of creators in addition to those channels terminated for policies that have been deprecated."
Meanwhile, said the firm, it will continue to avoid the use of third-party fact-checkers to moderate content, continuing to use context panels and information labels instead.
YouTube initially responded to the spread of Covid misinformation by banning content that, for example, linked the vaccine to cancer, and later suspended 70,000 accounts for sharing QAnon conspiracy content and inciting violence following the January 6 riots.
However, in the run-up to last year's presidential election, it reinstated the accounts of previously-banned Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy, and relaxed the ban on Covid misinformation.
The letter to the House Judiciary Committee was sent in response to a subpoena earlier this year from Rep. Jim Jordan, who said he wanted to investigate whether the Biden administration had "coerced or colluded" with companies like Alphabet to censor speech.
If implemented, the change could see conservative voices like former Trump advisor Steve Bannon and deputy FBI director Dan Bongino reinstated to the platform.
"YouTube values conservative voices on its platform and recognizes that these creators have extensive reach and play an important role in civic discourse," the letter said.
"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."