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Google CEO Sundar Pichai waves as he arrives to attend the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, February 11, 2025.
Benoit Tessier | Reuters
Google has long emphasized the need for factual accuracy on its platforms. However, a recent letter submitted to Congress signals a notable shift in the tech giant’s priorities toward “free expression,” a move that could have significant implications for the digital information landscape.
YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, announced on Tuesday that accounts previously banned for disseminating misinformation related to COVID-19 and the 2020 U.S. election will soon have the opportunity to apply for reinstatement. This policy shift was communicated in a letter authored by Alphabet lawyer Daniel Donovan and addressed to House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
This decision effectively reverses a previous policy that treated such violations as grounds for permanent bans, marking a significant departure from Google’s earlier stance on content moderation.
This shift comes despite the company’s persistent emphasis on accuracy and fact-checking initiatives, dating back to 2016 and throughout the pandemic. During that period, Google leveraged third-party fact-checkers and internal trust and safety teams to combat the spread of misinformation.
Donovan’s letter represents the latest instance of Google seemingly backtracking from its previous commitment to being a reliable source of accurate information, increasingly championing the cause of “free expression.” Google’s actions are not an isolated case. Meta, a major social media platform, also modified its speech policies in January, preceding the second inauguration of President Donald Trump.
YouTube’s revised reinstatement policy surfaces at a time when Alphabet faces considerable regulatory scrutiny. The company recently suffered defeats in antitrust cases brought by the Department of Justice, concerning Google’s dominant position in online search and advertising. Furthermore, Google is reportedly engaged in discussions with legal representatives of President Trump following a lawsuit stemming from the suspension of his social media accounts in the aftermath of the January 6th Capitol riot. Trump had previously filed lawsuits against Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube in 2021, ultimately reaching settlements with Meta and X earlier this year.
“Google is committed to free expression and works to connect users with a broad range of high quality, relevant information,” the company stated to CNBC, while also noting that it does not rely on external fact checkers for ranking content in products like Search or YouTube.
To mitigate potential risks associated with this shift in policy, Google emphasizes its ongoing investment in technologies such as SynthID, a watermarking tool designed to identify AI-generated content, and Community Notes, a feature enabling users to provide additional context to content on YouTube. The emphasis on these technologies suggests a move towards user empowerment and transparency as a means of addressing misinformation, rather than strict content removal.
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump and Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) speak on Day 2 of the Republican National Convention (RNC), at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., July 16, 2024.
Mike Segar | Reuters
The importance of ‘accurate information’
Google’s emphasis on fact-checking began to accelerate in the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. elections.
The company faced increasing criticism over the spread of misinformation, with false or misleading narratives often gaining prominence in Search results and Google News.
In response, Alphabet incorporated a fact-checking category into Google News in October 2016. The “Fact Check” tag utilized the ClaimReview program to highlight articles from reputable fact-checking organizations like PolitiFact and Snopes. Google declared that this new tag would assist readers in identifying fact-checked content within major news stories.
“We’re excited to see the growth of the Fact Check community and to shine a light on its efforts to divine fact from fiction, wisdom from spin,” Google stated at the time, showcasing its commitment to promoting accurate information.
In 2017, Google expanded its “Fact Check” tag globally and integrated it into search results. This update displayed findings from third-party fact-checking organizations verified by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) or similar entities. The fact-checked tags in search results offered insights into the accuracy of a claim, the claimant, and the fact-checker.
“Even though differing conclusions may be presented, we think it’s still helpful for people to understand the degree of consensus around a particular claim and have clear information on which sources agree,” the company stated at the time, underscoring the intent to provide users with comprehensive information to form their own opinions.
In 2018, then-YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced the introduction of text boxes containing “information cues” on videos promoting conspiracy theories. These boxes would link to third-party sources that debunked the claims.
During U.S. Congressional testimony that December, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai asserted that users “look to us to provide accurate, trusted information,” emphasizing the company’s role as a reliable source of knowledge.
The spread of COVID-19 heightened the importance of Google’s fact-checking endeavors. The company faced criticism for the proliferation of misinformation on its platforms, especially videos on YouTube concerning elections, COVID-19, and vaccines.
In an April 2020 blog post, Google announced the expansion of fact checks on YouTube to the United States, given that more people were turning to the platform for news. YouTube proposed leveraging information panels introduced in 2018 to link users to information about COVID-19 from authoritative sources, such as the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and local health authorities.
“The outbreak of COVID-19 and its spread around the world has reaffirmed how important it is for viewers to get accurate information during fast-moving events,” Google stated, emphasizing the urgency of providing reliable information during the pandemic.
In a May 2020 blog post titled “CoronaVirus: How We’re Helping,” Pichai reiterated Google’s commitment to protecting users from misinformation. “Our Trust and Safety team has been working around the clock and across the globe to safeguard our users from phishing, conspiracy theories, malware and misinformation, and we are constantly on the lookout for new threats,” Pichai wrote. “On YouTube, we are working to quickly remove any content that claims to prevent the coronavirus in place of seeking medical treatment.”
Despite these efforts, inaccurate videos started to go viral at an unmanageable pace by November 2020.
A video titled “Trump won” posted by One American News Network (OAN) on YouTube featured OAN anchor Christina Bobb falsely claiming that “President Trump won four more years in the office last night.” The video made unsubstantiated claims of “rampant voter fraud” against Republican ballots and urged viewers to “take action” against Democrats. Before YouTube ceased running ads on the video, it had amassed over 300,000 views.
“YouTube does not allow ads to run on content that undermines confidence in elections with demonstrably false information,” a YouTube spokesperson said in defense.
When asked why the video remained on the platform, another YouTube spokesperson clarified that the service’s “Community Guidelines” applied to videos that discouraged voting but did not address videos that advocated for interference after votes had already been cast.
Later that month, YouTube suspended OAN’s account for “repeated violations of its Covid-19 misinformation policy and other channel monetization policies.”
Following the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, the company suspended Trump’s YouTube account, stating that the outgoing president’s videos contravened the service’s policies prohibiting content that incites violence.
The importance of ‘free expression’
In 2023, Google began to adjust its policies.
That June, Google announced that it would cease removing false claims about widespread election fraud in the 2020 presidential race from YouTube, effective immediately.
YouTube explained in a blog post that the decision was driven by the need to balance “protecting our community and providing a home for open discussion and debate.” This reversal, which occurred before the 2024 midterm U.S. elections, undid a policy put in place in December 2020 following President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 U.S. election.
“In the current environment, we find that while removing this content does curb some misinformation, it could also have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech without meaningfully reducing the risk of violence or other real-world harm,” the company wrote, highlighting the tension between content moderation and free speech.
In March 2023, YouTube reinstated Trump’s YouTube channel, enabling him to once again upload videos.
In March 2024, Google and YouTube laid off employees from their trust and safety teams as part of broader cost-cutting measures. This decision mirrored similar staff and budget reductions in trust and safety teams conducted by tech companies such as Meta, Amazon, and X across the industry.
The pace of change in YouTube’s speech policies accelerated throughout 2025.
Kent Walker, president and chief legal officer at Alphabet Inc., during an interview in New York, US, on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024.
Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Alphabet’s President of Global Affairs, Kent Walker, communicated to a deputy director of the European Commission that it would “pull out of all fact-checking commitments” from its software code before allowing its services to become subject to the EU Digital Services Act, according to a January report by Axios. This represents a broader trend of tech companies pushing back against regulatory oversight of content moderation.
Walker argued in a letter to the deputy director that the fact-checking integration required by the European Commission was “simply isn’t appropriate or effective for our services.”
The company elaborated on this stance in a blog post for developers published in June, announcing the phasing out of “support for a few structured data features in Search,” which encompassed the ClaimReview fact-checking snippets. This move signals a simplification strategy, but it also aligns with a move away from proactive intervention on questionable content.
Clara Jiménez Cruz, CEO of fact-checking foundation Maldita.es and chair of the European Fact-Checking Standards Network, expressed concern for Google’s move stating, “Google did not inform fact-checkers that the 10-year collaboration was coming to an end, let alone consult with us on the decision to stop using the fact-checks that we provided for free.”
Google clarified to CNBC that it had never integrated fact-checking at scale, adding that the gradual removal of ClaimReview was part of its strategy to simplify its Search results page.
In August, YouTube TV entered into a multi-year contract with OAN, the same network it had initially suspended from YouTube following the 2020 U.S. election. This decision raised eyebrows among many industry analysts, who see the multi-year deal as an indicator of a long-term strategy shift.
The letter issued on Tuesday formalized YouTube’s decision to permit accounts previously banned for COVID-19 and 2020 election misinformation to apply to be reinstated. Among notable figures whose channels were earlier banned include individuals connected to Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
YouTube posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday that previously terminated creators had already started attempting to create new channels. YouTube clarified that the new policy is a “limited pilot program” that has not been formally implemented.
In stark contrast to external collaborations with fact-checking organizations, Alphabet’s legal counsel stated in its letter to Rep. Jordan, “YouTube has not and will not empower fact-checkers to take action on or label content across the Company’s services.” This statement suggests a future where potentially misleading or harmful content are not overtly labeled by verified sources, placing the onus on consumers to exercise personal judgement in making informed decisions.
However, YouTube’s help page states that the service will feature information panels with links to third-party fact checks below videos. This inconsistency could be interpreted as a strategic compromise. It allows YouTube to maintain a degree of flexibility, intervening in potentially controversial areas, without explicitly committing to rigorous oversight in all contexts.
“If a channel is owned by a news publisher that is funded by a government, or publicly funded, an information panel providing publisher context may be displayed on the watch page of the videos on its channel,” the help page states.
Google clarified it will continue using information panels on topics that warrant further context, exemplified by videos concerning the moon landing, however, these panels are designed to provide additional information, stopping short of refuting any claims made within a video.
In the letter, Alphabet’s Donovan said that senior Biden administration officials pressed the company to remove “non-violative user-generated content”, demonstrating the political pressures these companies face. Donovan confirmed that the Biden administration “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,” Donovan wrote. Alphabet “has consistently fought against those efforts on First Amendment grounds.”
Donovan further added that while YouTube’s dependence on health authorities during the pandemic was well-intentioned, it “should never have come at the expense of public debate.”
The tone and focus of Alphabet’s five-page letter differed considerably from its previous communications. While accurate, factual, or reliably-sourced information went unmentioned, the company emphasized the paramount importance of upholding “free expression.”
“The Company has a commitment to freedom of expression,” Donovan wrote. “This commitment is unwavering and will not bend to political pressure.”
The House Judiciary Committee issued its own statement alongside the Alphabet letter, stating that “Google admits Censorship Under Biden.”
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