In a bombshell development, House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) announced Tuesday that Google has admitted to censoring Americans under pressure from the Biden administration, and is now promising to restore accounts banned for political speech.
Jordan broke the news on X:
The letter from Google’s lawyers, sent to the House Judiciary Committee and published by Jordan, acknowledges that the company caved to government demands. Google explicitly conceded that the censorship pressure from Biden officials was “unacceptable and wrong”:
“Senior Biden Administration officials, including White House officials, communicated certain urgent concerns to Alphabet and pressed the Company to remove and suppress certain user-generated content related to the COVID-19 pandemic that did not violate its policies. While the Company continued to develop and enforce its policies independently, Biden Administration officials continued to press the Company to remove user-generated content. At times, officials, including Alphabet, grappled with the concern that, by acquiescing to requests from the Biden Administration, it might appear to be influenced by the views of government officials. Alphabet concluded that the pressure was unacceptable and wrong when any government, including the Biden Administration, sought to dictate how the Company moderates content, and the Company has consistently fought against those efforts on First Amendment grounds.”
Jordan emphasized what this means:
Google further committed that all creators who had been kicked off YouTube for political speech will now be allowed to return:
“The Company has begun to reverse its prior removals of user-generated content for violations of its COVID-19 and elections integrity policies and is reinstating channels and accounts that had previously been terminated.”
Jordan hailed this as a victory for free speech and a direct result of the Committee’s oversight:
Importantly, the letter also commits that YouTube will not outsource censorship to so-called “fact-checkers”:
“YouTube has not and will not empower fact-checkers to take content across the Company’s services. Unlike other large platforms, YouTube has not operated a fact-checking program that identifies and compensates fact-checking partners to produce content.”
Jordan highlighted that YouTube is also experimenting with features like “Community Notes,” allowing users, not government or corporate censors, to provide context:
The revelations come after years of denials from Big Tech companies that they acted as enforcers for Biden administration pressure campaigns. As Jordan noted:
The letter closes with Google acknowledging the seriousness of what was done, and pledging reforms:
“The Company has a commitment to freedom of expression. This commitment is a fundamental part of its mission and is critical in advancing free expression on its platforms.”
As Jordan put it:
For years, Big Tech denied what conservatives knew all along, that Biden’s White House strong-armed platforms into silencing dissent. Now, with Google finally admitting fault and pledging to restore the voices it erased, the fight to defend free speech is no longer hypothetical; it’s happening.
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