YouTube will allow creators whose accounts were terminated for repeated violations of COVID-19 and election integrity policies to rejoin the platform. This information comes from a letter that YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, sent to Representative Jim Jordan on Tuesday.
In the letter, Alphabet’s legal counsel, Daniel F. Donovan, wrote that reflecting the company’s commitment to free expression, YouTube will provide an opportunity for all creators to rejoin the platform if their channels were terminated for violating policies that are no longer in effect. The letter also stated that YouTube values conservative voices on its platform and recognizes that these creators have extensive reach and play an important role in civic discourse.
This letter was a response to a subpoena from Representative Jordan, who sought to investigate whether the Biden-Harris administration had coerced or colluded with companies like Alphabet to censor speech.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many social platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, enacted policies to ban the spread of medical misinformation about the virus and vaccines. For example, YouTube disallowed content claiming that vaccines can cause cancer, a false claim not supported by scientific research.
Later, platforms also took action against content that falsely claimed the 2020 U.S. presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. Twitter, before it was bought by Elon Musk, stated that it suspended 70,000 accounts for sharing QAnon conspiracy content and inciting violence in the week after the January 6th riots.
Leading up to the presidential election in 2024, online platforms began loosening their policies around misinformation. On YouTube, this included reinstating President Donald Trump, whose account had been banned after the January 6th attack for breaking rules around inciting violence. The platform also reinstated Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who later became the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Now, according to the company’s letter to Representative Jordan, all creators whose accounts were censored by these policies will be allowed back on the platform.
The company wrote that while the reliance on health authorities was well-intentioned, it recognizes it should have never come at the expense of public debate on these important issues. YouTube did not respond to a request for comment.