Alphabet to Reinstate YouTube Creators After Pressure

Alphabet told the House Judiciary Committee that YouTube will allow creators who were terminated under now-retired COVID-19 and election-integrity policies to rejoin the platform. Daniel Donovan, Alphabet’s chief counsel, said those standalone rules were loosened or retired in 2023–2024 as guidance and internal policies changed and that YouTube revised its approach to such content. In a letter, the company acknowledged that “senior Biden Administration officials” repeatedly pressed Alphabet to remove certain user-generated COVID-19 content, called that outreach “unacceptable and wrong,” and said it resisted the pressure. Alphabet pledged to apply its community guidelines equally, warned against government dictation of moderation decisions, and signaled a move away from third-party fact-checkers toward more community-driven moderation. The disclosures, which name high-profile conservatives including Steve Bannon, Sebastian Gorka and Dan Bongino among those eligible to return, came amid a yearslong Republican-led House Judiciary investigation into alleged political censorship by Big Tech.