WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — Google will reinstate YouTube accounts that were banned during the COVID-19 pandemic after pressure from the Biden administration, the company told House lawmakers Tuesday. Alphabet chief counsel Daniel Donovan informed the House Judiciary Committee that YouTube will allow previously banned users to return. He said the administration had created “a political atmosphere” that pushed platforms to act on concerns about misinformation.
“It is unacceptable and wrong when any government, including the Biden Administration, attempts to dictate how the Company moderates content,” Donovan wrote in a letter obtained by The Post. He added that Alphabet, Google’s parent company, resisted those efforts on First Amendment grounds.
The company’s move will restore accounts belonging to conservative figures who had been removed. Among them are FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, White House counterterrorism chief Sebastian Gorka, and “War Room” podcast host Steve Bannon. Their accounts were taken down after repeated violations of YouTube’s COVID-19 and election integrity policies.
“YouTube values conservative voices on its platform and recognizes that these creators have extensive reach and play an important role in civic discourse,” Donovan wrote.
Donovan also told lawmakers that YouTube never banned posts about the origins of COVID-19 and never operated a fact-checking program. He stressed that the platform’s goal is to protect free expression while allowing users to access a wide range of viewpoints.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed the company’s broader approach to free speech during Google’s I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California, earlier this year. The company’s latest decision reflects growing debate over how much influence the government should have on private platforms.
The House Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), has investigated tech companies for years. The panel probed whether the federal government violated Americans’ rights by working with platforms to police online content.
Alphabet praised the committee’s accountability during the investigation. The decision to reinstate banned accounts comes shortly after Meta ended third-party fact-checking on Facebook following a similar probe.
The issue has also played out in the courts. Republican state attorneys general argued in lawsuits that the Biden administration pressured social media companies to censor protected speech.
In July 2023, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana ruled that the White House likely colluded with Big Tech during the pandemic. He compared the government’s role to an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth.”
The Biden administration defended its actions, saying it only requested that companies remove suspected misinformation and never issued demands. The Supreme Court later overturned Doughty’s ruling in June 2024. The justices said the state attorneys general lacked standing to bring the case.
