A lawyer representing Google admitted to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) that President Joe Biden and his officials pressured the search giant to censor disfavored voices on YouTube.
- Google said in the letter that the Biden administration’s pressure was “unacceptable and wrong”
- The letter reveals that the Biden administration pressured YouTube to censor voices that did not violate YouTube’s policies, especially those discussing the 2020 presidential election and coronavirus pandemic-related content
- Google said it will never use third-party fact checks and instead rely on adding context to videos
- Google decried European laws it believes threatens American companies and free speech, including the removal of lawful content
- Even though it was admittedly pressured to censor content by the Biden administration, Google funded efforts to combat alleged mis/disinformation without pressure from the prior administration
“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if the company terminated their channels for repeated violations of COVID-19 and elections integrity policies that are no longer in effect,” Google wrote to Jordan.
The search giant said it would restore the accounts it had previously censored, which would likely include War Room host Steve Bannon and now-FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino.
“Senior Biden Administration officials, including White House officials, conducted repeated and sustained outreach to Alphabet and pressed the Company regarding certain user-generated content related to the COVID-19 pandemic that did not violate its policies,” the lawyer admitted to the Ohio congressman.
Google said that Biden and his officials had “created a political atmosphere that sought to influence the actions of platforms based on their concerns regarding misinformation.” The search behemoth said that the European Union’s Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act “may stifle innovation and restrict access to information.”
Google’s History of Censorship
While it’s a positive step to see Google’s shift in tone, it should not be forgotten that the tech giant engaged in widespread political censorship prior to COVID-19 and prior to the previous administration’s censorship pressure.
Leaks from Google in 2018 confirmed the existence of a blacklisting file that YouTube used to re-rank search results for hot-button political topics, including in response to complaints from journalists. The adjustments to search results a change to search results for “abortion,” which pushed pro-life videos out of the top ten results. Search results for political figures, including Maxine Waters and David Hogg, were also adjusted.
Mike Wacker, a former software engineer for Google, in 2019 confirmed that Google altered search results for YouTube after it came under criticism from MSNBC host Chris Hayes.
In 2010, Google created Jigsaw, then Google Ideas, led by a former specialist in overseas influence operations who served in the U.S. State Department under both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
Jigsaw has pioneered the concept of “psychological inoculation” as an essential technique to fight online extremism. It has also pioneered “prebunking,” or creating a “vaccine against misinformation,” to secure the dominance of official narratives.
After Trump’s election in 2016, Google executives labeled Trump voters “extremists” and even discussed using Jigsaw techniques against Trump voters.
