YouTube will allow creators whose accounts were permanently terminated for repeated violations of COVID-19 and election integrity policies to return to the platform, parent company Alphabet confirmed in a letter to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Tuesday.
“Reflecting the Company’s commitment to free expression, YouTube will provide an opportunity for all creators to rejoin the platform if the Company terminated their channels for repeated violations of COVID-19 and elections integrity policies that are no longer in effect,” Alphabet’s legal counsel Daniel F. Donovan wrote. The letter added that YouTube “values conservative voices” and acknowledges their role in civic discourse.
The announcement comes in response to a subpoena from Rep. Jordan, who is investigating whether the Biden-Harris administration improperly influenced platforms like Alphabet to censor speech online.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, YouTube and other social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter enforced strict rules against medical misinformation. The company banned videos spreading false claims, including the idea that vaccines could cause cancer. Later, platforms also cracked down on content pushing false narratives about the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Twitter, for instance, suspended more than 70,000 accounts tied to QAnon and calls for violence after the January 6 Capitol riots.
In the lead-up to the 2024 election, however, platforms began relaxing these policies. YouTube reinstated former president Donald Trump, who was banned in January 2021 for violating its rules on inciting violence, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was later appointed U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Now, Alphabet says all creators banned under those outdated COVID-19 and election misinformation policies will be allowed back on YouTube.
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“While the reliance on health authorities in this context was well-intentioned, the Company recognizes it should have never come at the expense of public debate on these important issues,” Alphabet wrote.
YouTube has not yet responded to media requests for further comment.
