Alphabet blames the Biden administration for its moderation decisions.

YouTube announced it will restore thousands of channels that were previously banned for violating its COVID-19 and election integrity policies[1]. This decision came in a 28-page letter from Alphabet to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on September 23, 2025[2].

The company acknowledged that Biden administration officials had pressured YouTube to remove content “that did not violate its policies,” which Alphabet called “unacceptable and wrong”[1:1][2:1]. YouTube’s current guidelines now permit a “wider range of content” regarding COVID-19 and elections[1:2].

Notable figures who could return include Dan Bongino (now FBI Deputy Director), White House counterterrorism chief Sebastian Gorka, and others who were banned for discussing COVID-19 or election claims[3]. The platform will offer terminated creators a process to rejoin if they were banned for violating policies that are no longer in effect[2:2].

As part of this change, YouTube will also ban the use of official fact-checkers on its platform, instead launching a feature similar to X’s “Community Notes” that allows users to provide context on videos[2:3].

  1. Ars Technica - YouTube will restore channels banned for COVID and election misinformation ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. Deseret News - YouTube restores accounts that were censored over COVID-19 and 2020 election claims ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. Washington Examiner - YouTube content creators no longer banned over political speech ↩︎

    • StewNasty@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      111·
      8 days ago

      Of course they are. They see which way the wind is blowing and are following it to the money. Simple as.

    • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.auEnglish
      112·
      8 days ago

      The large platforms are now the official propaganda arm of fascism.

      You say this while the large platforms have all been found to have been the official propaganda arm of the democrats, which is a staple of actual fascism, while now the current administration is making them stop being propaganda arms of the democrats.

            • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.auEnglish
              1·
              6 days ago

              The company acknowledged that Biden administration officials had pressured YouTube to remove content “that did not violate its policies,” which Alphabet called “unacceptable and wrong”

              What is your take on this? Do you think that is authoritarian/fascist behaviour by the Biden administration?

      • greasewizard@slrpnk.netEnglish
        31·
        7 days ago

        they’ve been found? by who?

        the owners of large platforms and their right to moderate their communities has little to do with “democrat propaganda”.

        Misinformation gets people hurt, YouTube at the time didn’t want their users getting hurt.

        now that the new administration is here, they are removing these policies to allow even more propaganda back onto their platform.

        • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.auEnglish
          1·
          6 days ago

          they’ve been found? by who?

          Did you somehow just randomly end up in this topic without even seeing what it was about?

          Misinformation gets people hurt, YouTube at the time didn’t want their users getting hurt.

          How are so many people in here missing the entire point of the article that this thread is about?

          Youtube didn’t think their users were getting hurt. Youtube deleted videos and banned accounts because the Biden administration forced them to.

          The company acknowledged that Biden administration officials had pressured YouTube to remove content “that did not violate its policies,” which Alphabet called “unacceptable and wrong”