YouTube said Tuesday it plans to reinstate some accounts that it previously banned for violating rules against repeatedly posting misinformation about COVID-19 and the 2020 election.
That announcement came in a letter sent by a lawyer for the platform's parent company, Alphabet, to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, in response to an investigation by Republicans into whether former President Joe Biden's administration pressured big tech companies to remove certain types of content.
The move is the latest example of how YouTube — like other tech platforms — has loosened its content moderation efforts in recent years, a trend that has accelerated across Silicon Valley this year amid pressure from conservatives.
YouTube previously rolled back policies that barred repeatedly posting some false claims about COVID-19 and the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Those policies resulted in enforcement actions against prominent figures. For example, an account belonging to Children's Health Defense Fund, a group affiliated with now-Health and Human Services Secretary and longtime vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was removed for posting vaccine misinformation in 2021; the same year, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson's account was temporarily suspended for posting about dubious COVID-19 treatments.
Now, accounts banned for violating those rules will have an opportunity to rejoin the platform, YouTube said in the letter, adding that the move reflects its...
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