WASHINGTON — YouTube will restore thousands of accounts that were removed from the site in recent years due to violations of its Community Guidelines after the website updated its rules surrounding COVID-19 and election integrity.
In a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on Tuesday, Google confirmed it would allow terminated accounts to return to the platform if they were removed for violations of policies “that are no longer in effect.” The announcement comes after the company updated its guidelines over the last three years to loosen its restrictions on COVID-19 content, retiring any standalone policies by December 2024.
“No matter the political atmosphere, YouTube will continue to enable free expression on its platform, particularly as it relates to issues subject to political debate,” legal counsel for Alphabet, the tech company that owns Google and YouTube, wrote in a letter to the committee. “Political debate and discussion are in the public’s interest, which is why YouTube expanded its approach to educational, documentary, scientific, and artistic content on the platform.”
YouTube admitted to terminating channels in 2023 and 2024 for claims in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 election results, but noted those policies are no longer in effect to adhere to its updated guidelines for free speech.
For example, the company said it updated its medical content rules as health care officials “changed their guidance over time,” particularly in relation to the pandemic. YouTube officials acknowledged that any concerns from health care officials about unproven COVID-19 theories were “well-intentioned,” but argued it should not have resulted in censorship.
Much of that censorship occurred under the Biden administration during the height of the pandemic and competing hypotheses on what caused the global spread. YouTube revealed that senior administration officials, including those in the White House, made repeated efforts to censor and remove content that contradicted official government messaging — even when that content did not explicitly violate the website’s rules.
“While the Company continued to develop and enforce its policies independently, Biden Administration officials continued to press the Company to remove non-violative user-generated content,” the letter states. “As online platforms, including Alphabet, grappled with these decisions, the Administration’s officials, including President Biden, created a political atmosphere that sought to influence the actions of platforms based on their concerns regarding misinformation.”
“It is unacceptable and wrong when any government, including the Biden Administration attempts to dictate how the Company moderates content, and the Company has consistently fought against those efforts on First Amendment grounds,” the letter added.
The revelations on Tuesday come after a yearslong investigation into the company over what Republicans considered to be unfair censorship against conservatives, resulting in multiple subpoenas against Alphabet and YouTube in February 2023 and March 2025.
That investigation uncovered new information related to the previous administration’s efforts to stifle some political speech, the letter stated, which contradicted its stated mission to “give everyone a voice and show them the world.”
The company also noted it “values conservative voices” and “recognizes that these creators have extensive reach and play an important role in civic discourse.” Because of that role — especially in providing commentary and “must-watch interviews,” the company said — those creators should not be blocked from accessing the platform.
To avoid similar situations in the future, YouTube said it would ban the use of official fact-checkers on its platform, instead launching a new feature similar to X’s “Community Notes” that allows users to provide “timely and understandable context” on videos.